This paper reports deuteron vector and tensor beam polarization measurements taken to investigate the systematic variations due to geometric beam misalignments and high data rates. The experiments used the In-Beam Polarimeter at the KVI-Groningen and the EDDA detector at the Cooler Synchrotron COSY at Jülich. By measuring with very high statistical precision, the contributions that are second-order in the systematic errors become apparent. By calibrating the sensitivity of the polarimeter to such errors, it becomes possible to obtain information from the raw count rate values on the size of the errors and to use this information to correct the polarization measurements. During the experiment, it was possible to demonstrate that corrections were satisfactory at the level of 10−5 for deliberately large errors. This may facilitate the real time observation of vector polarization changes smaller than 10−6 in a search for an electric dipole moment using a storage ring.

A finite electric dipole moment (EDM) in any fundamental system would constitute a signal for new physics. The deuteron presents itself as an optimal candidate both experimentally and theoretically. A new storage ring technique is being developed for which a small change in the vertical polarization would be a signal of a non-zero EDM. A novel polarimeter concept is under investigation. Besides being highly efficient, this polarimeter should continuously monitor the beam polarization, guaranteeing optimal sensitivity. Detailed studies on systematic error control, in addition to the measurement of cross sections and analyzing powers, were carried out at KVI-Groningen in The Netherlands. Measurements were conducted at COSY-Julich in Germany yielding high efficiencies. The (statistics limited) ability to track changes in polarization at the level of a few hundred parts-per-million has been demonstrated. Further studies and developments to meet the final goal of sub-part-per-million sensitivity are in progress.

The structures for the TRI mu P facility have been completed and commissioned. At the facility radioactive nuclides are produced to study fundamental interactions and symmetries. An important feature is the possibility to trap radioactive atoms in order to obtain and hold a pure substrate-free sample for precision measurements. In the TRI mu P facility a production target is followed by a magnetic separator, where radioactive isotopes are produced in inverse reaction kinematics. Separation up to 99.95% could be achieved for Na-21. A novel transmitting thermal ionizing device was developed to stop the energetic isotopes. Some 50% of stopped Na-21 could be extracted and transported as low energy singly charged ions into a radio frequency quadrupole cooler and buncher with 35% transmission efficiency. The ions are transported lossless via a drift tube and a low energy electrostatic beam line into the experimental setup. Such ions can be neutralized on hot metal foils and the resulting atoms can be stored in a magneto-optical trap. The functioning of that principle was demonstrated with stable Na extracted from the thermal ionizer, radioactive beams will follow next. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We propose using the storage ring method to measure the electric dipole moment (EDM) of D+, the bare deuteron nucleus, with a one sigma sensitivity of 10−29 e · cm per 107 s running time. At this level it will be the best experiment among current and currently planned EDM experiments. Its mass scale reach for SUSY-type new physics is more than 300 TeV, or if there is physics at the LHC scale, its sensitivity to CP-violating phases is 10−5 rad; both scales are much beyond the design sensitivity of the LHC. High intensity, polarized deuteron sources, polarimeters with high analyzing powers at 1 GeV/c total deuteron momentum, and the application of common accelerator techniques make this goal possible. The polarimeter systematic errors are minimized by applying symmetries related to the deuteron spin direction and the EDM signal. In addition, the slow beam extraction onto a solid carbon target aided by a precise beam position monitoring system ensures that the beam direction axis will remain the same within very tight limits during the storage time. The widening of the polarimeter detector capabilities to give counting as well as directional information will severely restrict the larger polarimeter systematic errors to well below the 10−29 e·cm level. We are perfecting those techniques by running very important hardware tests at KVI (the Netherlands) and COSY (Germany), where polarized deuteron beams are currently available.

An effective ion catcher is all important part of a radioactive beam Facility that is based on in-flight production. The catcher stops fast radioactive products and emits them as singly charged slow ions. Current ion catchers are based on stopping in He and H-2 gas. However, with increasing intensity of the secondary beam the amount of ion-electron pairs created eventually prevents the electromagnetic extraction of the radioactive ions front the gas cell. In contrast, such limitations are not present in thermal ionizers used with the ISOL production technique. Therefore, at least for alkaline and alkaline earth elements, a thermal ionizer should then be preferred. An important use of the TRI mu P facility will be for precision measurements using atom traps. Atom trapping is particularly possible for alkaline and alkaline earth isotopes. The facility call produce up to 10(9) s(-1) of various Na isotopes with the in-flight method. Therefore, we have built and tested a thermal ionizer. An overview of the operation, design, construction, and commissioning of the thermal ionizer for TRI mu P will be presented along with first results for Na-20 and Na-21. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.