Neutrino mass and low-temperature calorimetry

We describe how the problem of measuring the neutrino mass led us to the development of low-temperature calorimetry. The search for a "17-keV neutrino" concluded with a negative result, but a wide range of applications are now carried on by us and by other groups in the fields of x-ray astronomy, recoil measurements of dark matter particles, high precision particle spectrometry, specific heat determinations, neutron detection, rare decay studies. The masses of the bolometers (calorimeters) extend from 1 mg to 1 Kg, nearly as large as for quantum detectors. By lowering the temperature into the 10-20 mK range, calorimetry is on the way to surpass substantially the high precision of particle metrology obtainable with the quantum detectors. Calorimeter developments and perspectives are discussed

Bohr-Weisskopf effect: influence of the distributed nuclear magnetization on hfs

Nuclear magnetic moments provide a sensitive test of nuclear wave functions, in particular those of neutrons, which are not readily obtainable from other nuclear data. These are taking added importance by recent proposals to study parity non-conservation (PNC) effects in alkali atoms in isotopic series. By taking ratios of the PNC effects in pairs of isotopes, uncertainties in the atomic wave functions are largely cancelled out at the cost of knowledge of the change in the neutron wave function, the Bohr-Weisskopf effect (1950) in the hyperfine structure interaction of atoms measures the influence of the spatial distribution of the nuclear magnetization, and thereby provides an additional constraint on the determination of the neutron wave function. The added great importance of B-W in the determination of QED effects from the hfs in hydrogen-like ions of heavy elements, as measured recently at GSI, is noted, the B-W experiments require precision measurements of the hfs interactions and, independently, of the nuclear magnetic moments. A novel atomic beam magnetic resonance (ABMR) method, combining rf and laser excitation, has been developed for a systematic study and initially applied to stable isotopes. Difficulties in adapting the experiment to the ISOLDE radioactive ion beam, which have now been surmounted, are discussed, a first radioactive beam measurement for this study, the precision hfs of /sup 126/Cs, has been obtained recently. The result is 3629.515 (~0.001) MHz, the ability of ABMR to determine with high precision nuclear magnetic moments in free atoms is a desideratum for the extraction of QED effects from the hfs of the hydrogen-like ions. We also point out manifestations of B-W in condensed matter and atomic physics. (50 refs)