  Trapped radioactive atoms present exciting opportunities for the study of
fundamental interactions and symmetries. For example, detecting beta decay in a
trap can probe the minute experimental signal that originates from possible
tensor or scalar terms in the weak interaction. Such scalar or tensor terms
affect, e.g., the angular correlation between a neutrino and an electron in the
beta-decay process, thus probing new physics of "beyond-the-standard-model"
nature. In particular, this article focuses on a novel use of an innovative ion
trapping device, the Electrostatic Ion Beam Trap (EIBT). Such a trap has not
been previously considered for Fundamental Interaction studies and exhibits
potentially very significant advantages over other schemes. These advantages
include improved injection efficiency of the radionuclide under study, an
extended field-free region, ion-beam kinematics for better efficiency and
ease-of-operation and the potential for a much larger solid angle for the
electron and recoiling atom counters.
