Project 8

Each electron as Project 8's receiver sees it: its frequency in the real trap, in MHz above the reference (the krypton line, or tritium's endpoint), against time. A track climbs as the electron radiates and cools, about 300 MHz a second; a collision with the gas makes it jump (a dot) or ends it (a cross), and a track that reaches the trap's edge as its pitch angle closes ends too.

The magnetic bottle: the field along the axis, B₀ (1 + z²/L²), rising to the walls. Each electron bounces between the points where the field turns it back, here slowed to the note's scale (the real bounce is a hundred million times a second); one that bounces further sees more field, so it sounds a little sharp, and its Doppler vibrato is deeper. As an electron cools its bounce widens, until it reaches the walls and leaves.

How many electrons of each energy you have played, over tritium's β spectrum (the curve) with its endpoint, 18.57 keV, and the krypton line, 17.82 keV. Project 8 measures this spectrum by frequency: a neutrino's mass would pull the endpoint in and bend the last few eV of the curve.

Each note rises from its key towards its ceiling, slowing as the electron cools, and stops when the electron leaves the trap. With the antenna ring, its harmonics rise with it and fade first.