World’s thinnest pixel detector: PSI shows the Mu3e experiment in its cleanroom
The Mu3e experiment searches for a muon decay that, according to current knowledge, should not exist. A PSI video shows the detector the team has built for it.
Photo: PSI / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Video: YouTube · PSI Paul Scherrer Institut · youtube.com
In the cleanroom of the experimental hall at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in the Swiss canton of Aargau, researchers have built what the institute calls the world's thinnest pixel detector. A PSI video released on 16 October shows the device for the Mu3e experiment. Thomas Rudzki leads viewers through the cleanroom; the team is headed by Stefan Ritt.
Mu3e searches for the decay of a muon into two positrons and one electron. Under the Standard Model of particle physics this decay is practically ruled out – according to a 2018 conference paper on behalf of the Mu3e collaboration, its probability is below 10⁻⁵⁴. If it were observed, it would be a clear sign of physics beyond the Standard Model. At the time, the sensors were planned to be only 50 micrometres thin so that they disturb the tracks of the decay products as little as possible.
It is not only the detector that is custom-built: because of its dimensions, specially developed cooling, readout and engineering solutions were needed, PSI says. Mu3e is to reach its full sensitivity with the unprecedented muon intensity that the IMPACT upgrade at PSI is set to provide.