Speaker
Description
Precision beta-decay measurements offer unique insight into the electroweak part of the Standard Model through a variety of tests including the unitarity of the Cabbibo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) quark mixing matrix. A reliable unitarity test of the CKM matrix requires a precise and accurate value of $V_{ud}$. Several experimental quantities enter into the determination of $V_{ud}$ from superallowed mixed mirror decays including the half-life and the Fermi to Gamow-Teller mixing ratio, $\rho$. As such a precision half-life campaign has been running at the Nuclear Science Laboratory (NSL) at the University of Notre Dame which has measured the most precise half-life for several isotopes including, most recently, $^{28}$Al and $^{33}$Cl. In addition, the Superallowed Transition BEta- NEutrino Decay Ion Coincidence Trap (St. Benedict) is currently being commissioned at the NSL which aims to measure the beta-neutrino angular correlation parameter in order to extract $\rho$ from more of these transitions. Results from the most recent half-life measurements, as well as the first delivery of radioactive ion beams to St. Benedict, will be presented. This work is supported by the US National Science Foundation under grant numbers PHY-1725711, 2310059, and the University of Notre Dame.
