Speaker
Description
The Superconducting Array for Low Energy Radiation (SALER) at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) is a new experiment using superconducting tunnel junction (STJ) radiation detectors implanted on-line with rare isotopes to search for physics beyond the Standard Model, initially targeting scalar and tensor current contributions to the weak force. We accomplish this by directly measuring the nuclear recoil spectra of implanted nuclei to ~1 eV precision, starting with the mirror nuclei $^{11}$C and $^{19}$Ne. In these cases, the recoil encodes information about the ratio between Fermi and Gamow-Teller decay modes allowing for an indirect measurement of $V_{ud}$.
Last year, we took delivery of SALER's adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator, STJ control and readout electronics, and 32 of the eventual 128 STJ sensors. We present on the status of initial offline testing of SALER at FRIB using a $^{137}$Cs source, development of a laser feedthrough and x-ray tube for calibration, and progress towards integration with existing systems at FRIB.
Acknowledgements:
This work is supported by the DOE-SC Office of Nuclear Physics, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams.
