Development of the St. Benedict Paul Trap at the Nuclear Science Laboratory

There are various tests of the Standard Model aimed at probing new physics. One such test is to check the unitarity of the Cabbibo-Kobayashi-Masakawa matrix, with the most precise result given by the normalization of the top row. The precision of this result is limited by the uncertainty of the Vud and Vus elements. The most precise result for Vud is currently derived from the ensemble of superallowed 0+ → 0+ nuclear β decays, but the determination from other transitions is desirable to check theoretical calculations and the potential presence of unknown systematic contributions. Other candidates include neutron decay, pion decay, and the ensemble of nuclear mirror decays. While the neutron and pion decay present their own unique experimental challenges, the group of mirror decays require the precise determination of the Fermi to Gamow-Teller mixing ratio. This value can be extracted from a measurement of the β-ν angular correlation parameter, αβν, which is currently only known for five mirror decays. A new ion trapping system, St. Benedict (Superallowed Transition Beta-Neutrino Decay-Ion-Coincidence Trap), to be located in the Nuclear Science Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame is currently under construction and will ultimately aim to extract αβν for more mirror decays. The focus of this work is on simulations that will guide the design of the Paul trap which will be used for the measurement.