Context
Experiments in nuclear beta-decay have been instrumental for the development of our current understanding of weak interactions. Precision measurements in nuclear beta decay provide today sensitive windows to search for new physics beyond the standard model which describes particles and
interactions at the most elementary level. In beta decay, the “new physics” can be parametrized in terms of “exotic” scalar and tensor interactions. In the past few years, it has been recognized that for interactions involving left-handed neutrinos, measurements at low energy can be competitive with direct searches performed at particle colliders such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, provided they address the appropriate observables like for instance the beta-energy spectrum.
After an exploratory work performed at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (Michigan
State University, USA), in the beta decay of 6He and 20F, we are preparing new experiments to be performed at GANIL with both, fast and slow beams of 6He. In this respect, GANIL offers a unique opportunity for such experiments since it is the only facility worldwide where both beam energies are available. The interest in using both energies resides in the associated systematic effects of experiments, which have to be very carefully studied.
The goal of this project is to perform the most precise measurement of the beta-energy spectrum in 6He decay in order to deduce a parameter which is related to the presence of exotic tensor interactions. More quantitatively, the final goal of the project is to reach a total uncertainty which will result in an order of magnitude improvement in sensitivity compared to current constraints obtained from the LHC.

Internship work
The work within this M2 internship involves both, hands-on activities for the preparation, tests and characterization of detectors to be used for high precision measurements as well as Monte-Carlo simulations. The candidate is expected to be actively involved in tests of scintillator detectors and of the data acquisition system and to perform also some preliminary work on detector simulations. This M2 research can lead to a PhD thesis on the topic described above.

Location
The work will be carried out at the Laboratoire de Physique Corpusculaire in Caen.