skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Nuclear magnetic and electric dipole moments of neon-19

Thesis/Dissertation ·
OSTI ID:6960656

This thesis presents a detailed discussion of a series of experiments designed to measure the magnetic and electric dipole moments of the ..beta..-emitting nucleus /sup 19/Ne. The /sup 19/Ne is generated in the reaction /sup 19/F(p,n)/sup 19/Ne and is polarized by a ''stern-Gerlach'' magnet in a rare gas atomic beams machine. The atoms are stored in a cell for many seconds without depolarizing. The parity violating asymmetry in the ..beta.. angular distribution is used to monitor the nuclear polarization. The polarized atoms are stored in a cell in a uniform magnetic field. The ..beta..-asymmetry is monitored by a pair of ..beta..-detectors located on either side of the cell. Transitions between the M/sub J/ = +1/2 and M/sub J/ = -1/2 spin states are induced by an rf field generated by a small Helmholtz coil pair surrounding the cell. Nuclear magnetic resonance lines are observed and the magnetic moment of /sup 19/Ne measured to be ..mu..(/sup 19/Ne) = -1.88542(8)..mu../sub N/. A new magnet, cell and detectors were designed to give narrow resonance lines. The equipment is described in detail and several resonance line shapes are discussed. The narrowest resonance line achieved with this system was 0.043 Hz FWHM. This width is primarily due to the /sup 19/Ne lifetime. Pulsed NMR lineshapes were also observed. The narrow NMR lines observed in the previous experiment were then used as a probe to look for an electric dipole moment (EDM) in /sup 19/Ne. Any shift in the resonance frequency correlated with changes in an externally applied electric field would be evidence for an EDM. The EDM of the /sup 19/Ne atom was measured to (7.2 +/- 6.2 X 10/sup -22/ e-cm. This experiment and possible improvements are discussed in detail.

Research Organization:
Princeton Univ., NJ (USA)
OSTI ID:
6960656
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English