Measurement of the total electron-hydrogen scattering cross section for the Project 8 experiment

Abstract

Project 8 is an experiment that aims to determine the neutrino mass from a measurement of the endpoint of the tritium beta-decay continuous energy distribution. To do this, Project 8 is utilizing the cyclotron radiation of electrons in a magnetic field. In June 2014, Project 8 saw the first cyclotron radiation signals from single electrons. The frequency spectrum showed that there are frequency jumps between each track. Using the simulation package, Kassiopeia, data collected on June 2014 were compared against Monte Carlo scattering predictions. This thesis presents the analysis of these frequency jumps. This thesis also presents electron-hydrogen cross section values for the simulations and theoretical models. The cross section for the simulations is used to approximate the number density of the experiment.