CRES-Based Non-destructive Electron Momentum Estimation for the PTOLEMY Relic Neutrino Detector

The novel electron spectrometry method proposed by the PTOLEMY relic neutrino experiment requires a real-time, non-destructive estimate of the parallel and transverse momentum splits of tritium -decay electrons. We propose to obtain this estimate using cyclotron-radiation emission spectroscopy (CRES), in which the kinetic energy of a charged particle is determined by measuring the relativistic frequency shift of the cyclotron radiation emitted by the particle in a magnetic field. This paper presents the first design for a configuration that can be feasibly integrated directly into the existing design for the transverse drift filter proposed by the PTOLEMY collaboration. We propose a geometry incorporating a cavity resonator to enhance a O (1) 1mmfW cyclotron radiation signal and derive key features of the expected observed radiation specific to our RF tracking configuration. We estimate the performance of our design using electromagnetic simulations and present a general signal reconstruction algorithm capable of matching an observed signal to electron kinematic parameters. The projected SNR of this technique demonstrates for the first time that a non-destructive RF tracking system is applicable for the suppression of backgrounds in a differential energy measurement of tritium endpoint electrons.