Penning traps as a versatile tool for precise experiments in fundamental physics

This review article describes the trapping of charged particles. The main principles of electromagnetic confinement of various species from elementary particles to heavy atoms are briefly described. The preparation and manipulation with trapped single particles, as well as methods of frequency measurements, providing unprecedented precision, are discussed. Unique applications of Penning traps in fundamental physics are presented. Ultra-precise trap-measurements of masses and magnetic moments of elementary particles (electrons, positrons, protons and antiprotons) confirm CPT-conservation, and allow accurate determination of the fine-structure constant alpha and other fundamental constants. This together with the information on the unitarity of the quark-mixing matrix, derived from the trap-measurements of atomic masses, serves for assessment of the Standard Model of the physics world. Direct mass measurements of nuclides targeted to some advanced problems of astrophysics and nuclear physics are also presented

Position-sensitive ion detection in precision Penning trap mass spectrometry

A commercial, position-sensitive ion detector was used for the first time for the time-of-flight ion-cyclotron resonance detection technique in Penning trap mass spectrometry. In this work, the characteristics of the detector and its implementation in a Penning trap mass spectrometer will be presented. In addition, simulations and experimental studies concerning the observation of ions ejected from a Penning trap are described. This will allow for a precise monitoring of the state of ion motion in the trap.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figure

TRIGA-SPEC: A setup for mass spectrometry and laser spectroscopy at the research reactor TRIGA Mainz

The research reactor TRIGA Mainz is an ideal facility to provide neutron-rich nuclides with production rates sufficiently large for mass spectrometric and laser spectroscopic studies. Within the TRIGA-SPEC project, a Penning trap as well as a beam line for collinear laser spectroscopy are being installed. Several new developments will ensure high sensitivity of the trap setup enabling mass measurements even on a single ion. Besides neutron-rich fission products produced in the reactor, also heavy nuclides such as 235-U or 252-Cf can be investigated for the first time with an off-line ion source. The data provided by the mass measurements will be of interest for astrophysical calculations on the rapid neutron-capture process as well as for tests of mass models in the heavy-mass region. The laser spectroscopic measurements will yield model-independent information on nuclear ground-state properties such as nuclear moments and charge radii of neutron-rich nuclei of refractory elements far from stability. This publication describes the experimental setup as well as its present status.Comment: 20 pages, 17 figure

Der Einfluss des ökologischen Landbaus auf das Raumnutzungsverhalten von Feldhasen (Lepus europaeus)

Agricultural intensification (AI) negatively affects biodiversity due to e.g. high-input farming. Organic farming can counteract this negative trend. Here, we studied movement behavior of the European brown hare (Lepus europaeus), which frequently occurs in agricultural landscapes but also suffers from AI with declining population densities. We measured home range sizes in relation to local field management (organic vs. conventional farming) in Upper Bavarian, Germany. Results showed that home ranges sizes decreased with increasing amount of organically managed area, while there was no relationship between conventional farmed area and hares’ movement behavior. Higher resource availability in organic fields decrease home range sizes and may therefore positively influences individual fitness and possibly boosts hare densities

Robustness of spatial Penning trap modes against environment-assisted entanglement

The separability of the spatial modes of a charged particle in a Penning trap in the presence of an environment is studied by means of the positive partial transpose (PPT) criterion. Assuming a weak Markovian environment, described by linear Lindblad operators, our results strongly suggest that the environmental coupling of the axial and cyclotron degrees of freedom does not lead to entanglement at experimentally realistic temperatures. We therefore argue that, apart from unavoidable decoherence, the presence of such an environment does not alter the effectiveness of recently suggested quantum information protocols in Penning traps, which are based on the combination of a spatial mode with the spin of the particle.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure