Combined ion and atom trap for low temperature ion-atom physics

We report an experimental apparatus and technique which simultaneously traps ions and cold atoms with spatial overlap. Such an apparatus is motivated by the study of ion-atom processes at temperatures ranging from hot to ultra-cold. This area is a largely unexplored domain of physics with cold trapped atoms. In this article we discuss the general design considerations for combining these two traps and present our experimental setup. The ion trap and atom traps are characterized independently of each other. The simultaneous operation of both is then described and experimental signatures of the effect of the ions and cold-atoms on each other are presented. In conclusion the use of such an instrument for several problems in physics and chemistry is briefly discussed.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures. Figures Fixe

Extraction of Kaon Formfactors from K^- -> mu^- nu_mu gamma Decay at ISTRA+ Setup

The radiative decay K->mu nu gamma has been studied at ISTRA+ setup in a new kinematical region. About 22K events of K^- -> mu^- nu_mu gamma have been observed. The sign and value of Fv-Fa have been measured for the first time. The result is Fv-Fa=0.21(4)(4).Comment: 11 pages, 21 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.

Search for Heavy Neutrino in K->mu nu_h(nu_h-> nu gamma) Decay at ISTRA+ Setup

Heavy neutrino nu_h with m_h < 300MeV/c^2 can be effectively searched for in kaon decays. We put upper limits on mixing matrix element |U_mu_h}|^2 for radiatively decaying nu_h from K->mu nu_h (nu_h -> nu gamma) decay chain in the following parameter region: 30MeV/c^2 < m_h < 80MeV/c^2; 10^{-11}sec < tau_h < 10^{-9}sec. For the whole region |U_{mu h}|^2 < 5 x 10^{-5} for Majorana type of nu_h and | U_{\mu h}|^2 < 8 x 10^{-5} for the Dirac case.Comment: Published in Phys. Lett.