Precision determination of pion mass using X-ray CCD spectroscopy

Abstract An experiment is described which aims to determine the charged pion mass to 1 ppm or better, from which a new determination of the upper limit of the muon neutrino mass is anticipated. The experimental approach uses a high-intensity negative pion beam (produced at the PSI 590 MeV proton cyclotron), injected into a cyclotron trap and stopped inside a gas-filled target chamber, to form highly excited exotic atoms of pionic nitrogen and muonic oxygen. The energy of photons, emitted during de-excitation, is directly proportional to the mass of the pion or muon. These soft X-ray emission spectra are measured using a high-precision crystal spectrometer, with an array of six, high quantum efficiency X-ray position resolving CCDs at the focus. To achieve sub-ppm accuracy, simultaneous calibration of the pionic nitrogen line is provided by measurement of an adjacent muonic oxygen line, whose energy is known to 0.3 ppm. The high precision of the experiment offers a new opportunity to determine the pion mass to the level of 1 ppm. This result, if achieved, will enable new upper limits to be placed on the rest mass of the muon neutrino, which may possibly be of cosmological significance in consideration of the neutrino mass contribution to dark matter.