Measurement of the total electron-hydrogen scattering cross section for the Project 8 experiment

Project 8 is an experiment that aims to determine the neutrino mass from a measurement of the endpoint of the tritium beta-decay continuous energy distribution. To do this, Project 8 is utilizing the cyclotron radiation of electrons in a magnetic field. In June 2014, Project 8 saw the first cyclotron radiation signals from single electrons. The frequency spectrum showed that there are frequency jumps between each track. Using the simulation package, Kassiopeia, data collected on June 2014 were compared against Monte Carlo scattering predictions. This thesis presents the analysis of these frequency jumps. This thesis also presents electron-hydrogen cross section values for the simulations and theoretical models. The cross section for the simulations is used to approximate the number density of the experiment.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Rysewyk, Devyn Marie

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Joseph Formaggio.

• Physics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/100332

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/100332