Journal Article

First application of superconducting transition-edge sensor microcalorimeters to hadronic atom X-ray spectroscopy

Ullom, J. N., Gard, J. D., Suzuki, K., Widmann, E., Hashimoto, T., Swetz, D. S., Marton, J., Noda, H., Hays-Wehle, J. P., Yamada, S., Ma, Y., Hayano, R. S., Uhlig, J., Bennett, D. A., Shi, H., Zmeskal, J., Okada, S., Curceanu, C., Hilton, G. C., Koike, T., Outa, H., Hirenzaki, S., Itahashi, K., Reintsema, C. D., Tatsuno, H., Ikeno, N., Gustafsson, F. P., Iliescu, M., Iwasaki, M., Doriese, W. B., Fowler, J. W., Yamagata-Sekihara, J., Ishimoto, S., Suzuki, T., Schmidt, D. R., O'Neil, G. C., Sato, M., Kuwabara, K.

2016

Overview

High-resolution pionic atom X-ray spectroscopy was performed with an X-ray spectrometer based on a 240 pixel array of superconducting transition-edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeters at the πM1 beam line of the Paul Scherrer Institute. X-rays emitted by pionic carbon via the 4f→3d transition and the parallel 4d→3p transition were observed with a full width at half maximum energy resolution of 6.8 eV at 6.4 keV. The measured X-ray energies are consistent with calculated electromagnetic values which considered the strong interaction effect assessed via the Seki–Masutani potential for the 3p energy level, and favor the electronic population of two filled 1s electrons in the K-shell. Absolute energy calibration with an uncertainty of 0.1 eV was demonstrated under a high-rate hadron beam condition of 1.45 MHz. This is the first application of a TES spectrometer to hadronic atom X-ray spectroscopy and is an important milestone towards next-generation high-resolution kaonic atom X-ray spectroscopy.

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Subject: Fysik / Natural Sciences / Naturvetenskap / Physical Sciences / Subatomic Physics / Subatomär fysik