Setup and Data
Experimental setup used for the 82Rb parity violating experiment. An 82Rb+ion beam is implanted on a zirconium foil located inside a glass cell. The 82Rb atoms are released upon heating of the foil and trapped in a high-efficiency MOT. The atoms are transferred to a second chamber where they are retrapped in a second MOT, further cooled, optically pumped, and loaded into a time orbiting potential (TOP) magnetic trap to produce a nuclear polarized sample with a polarization vector that rotates with time. The beta decay of the polarized atoms is detected using a plastic scintillator detector. From the TOP trap coil currents recorded with each beta event, the angle between beta and the nuclear spin direction at that moment is determined.
The accumulated angular correlation data shows a clear cosine (theta) dependence, which is consistent with parity violation. See Phys. Rev. Let. 86, 2967 (2001) for further details.