New result for the neutron β-asymmetry parameter A0 from UCNA

Brown, M. A. -P.; Dees, E. B.; Adamek, E.; Allgeier, B.; Blatnik, M.; Bowles, T. J.; Broussard, L. J.; Carr, R.; Clayton, S.; Cude-Woods, C.; Currie, S.; Ding, X.; Filippone, B. W.; García, A.; Geltenbort, P.; Hasan, S.; Hickerson, K. P.; Hoagland, J.; Hong, R.; Hogan, G. E.; Holley, A. T.; Ito, T. M.; Knecht, A.; Liu, C. -Y.; Liu, J.; Makela, M.; Martin, J. W.; Melconian, D.; Mendenhall, M. P.; Moore, S. D.; Morris, C. L.; Nepal, S.; Nouri, N.; Pattie, R. W.; Pérez Galván, A.; Phillips, D. G.; Picker, R.; Pitt, M. L.; Plaster, B.; Ramsey, J. C.; Rios, R.; Salvat, D. J.; Saunders, A.; Sondheim, W.; Seestrom, S. J.; Sjue, S.; Slutsky, S.; Sun, X.; Swank, C.; Swift, G.; Tatar, E.; Vogelaar, R. B.; VornDick, B.; Wang, Z.; Wexler, J.; Womack, T.; Wrede, C.; Young, A. R.; Zeck, B. A.

doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.97.035505

Title: New result for the neutron $β$ -asymmetry parameter $A_{0}$ from UCNA

Journal Article · Mon Mar 26 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Physical Review C

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.97.035505· OSTI ID:1481657

Brown, M. A. -P.; Dees, E. B.; Adamek, E.; Allgeier, B.; Blatnik, M.; Bowles, T. J.; Broussard, L. J.; Carr, R.; Clayton, S.; Cude-Woods, C.; Currie, S.; Ding, X.; Filippone, B. W.; García, A.; Geltenbort, P.; Hasan, S.; Hickerson, K. P.; Hoagland, J.; Hong, R.; Hogan, G. E. more »

Background: The neutron β-decay asymmetry parameter A₀ defines the angular correlation between the spin of the neutron and the momentum of the emitted electron. Values for A₀ permit an extraction of the ratio of the weak axial-vector to vector coupling constants, λ≡g_A/g_V, which under assumption of the conserved vector current hypothesis (g_V=1) determines g_A. Precise values for g_A are important as a benchmark for lattice QCD calculations and as a test of the standard model. Purpose: The UCNA experiment, carried out at the Ultracold Neutron (UCN) source at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center, was the first measurement of any neutron β-decay angular correlation performed with UCN. This article reports the most precise result for A₀ obtained to date from the UCNA experiment, as a result of higher statistics and reduced key systematic uncertainties, including from the neutron polarization and the characterization of the electron detector response. Methods: UCN produced via the downscattering of moderated spallation neutrons in a solid deuterium crystal were polarized via transport through a 7 T polarizing magnet and a spin flipper, which permitted selection of either spin state. The UCN were then contained within a 3-m long cylindrical decay volume, situated along the central axis of a superconducting 1 T solenoidal spectrometer. With the neutron spins then oriented parallel or anti-parallel to the solenoidal field, an asymmetry in the numbers of emitted decay electrons detected in two electron detector packages located on both ends of the spectrometer permitted an extraction of A₀. Results: The UCNA experiment reports a new 0.67% precision result for A₀ of A₀= -0.12054(44)_stat(68)_syst, which yields λ=g_A/g_V= -1.2783(22). Combination with the previous UCNA result and accounting for correlated systematic uncertainties produces A₀= -0.12015(34)_stat(63)_syst and λ=g_A/g_V= -1.2772(20).Conclusions: This new result for A₀ and g_A/g_V from the UCNA experiment has provided confirmation of the shift in values for g_A/g_V that has emerged in the published results from more recent experiments, which are in striking disagreement with the results from older experiments. Individual systematic corrections to the asymmetries in older experiments (published prior to 2002) were >10%, whereas those in the more recent ones (published after 2002) have been of the scale of <2%. Finally, the impact of these older results on the global average will be minimized should future measurements of A₀ reach the 0.1% level of precision with central values near the most recent results.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

View Accepted Manuscript (Publisher)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Contributing Organization:: UCNA Collaboration

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725; FG02-08ER41557; SC0014622; FG02-97ER41042; 20110043DR

OSTI ID:: 1481657

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1429559

Journal Information:: Physical Review C, Vol. 97, Issue 3; ISSN 2469-9985

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 44 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (48)

Quasielastic scattering in the interaction of ultracold neutrons with a liquid wall and application in a reanalysis of the Mambo I neutron-lifetime experiment Steyerl, A.; Pendlebury, J. M.; Kaufman, C. Physical Review C, Vol. 85, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.85.065503	journal	June 2012
Recoil effects in allowed beta decay: The elementary particle approach Holstein, Barry R. Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 46, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.46.789	journal	October 1974
Review of Particle Physics Olive, K. A. Chinese Physics C, Vol. 40, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1088/1674-1137/40/10/100001	journal	October 2016
A stable light pulser for gain stabilizing photomultiplier tubes Morris, Christopher L.; Braithwaite, Wilfred J.; Moore, C. Fred Nuclear Instruments and Methods, Vol. 136, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0029-554X(76)90416-X	journal	July 1976
Measurement of the neutron $β$ -asymmetry parameter $A_{0}$ with ultracold neutrons Plaster, B.; Rios, R.; Back, H. O. Physical Review C, Vol. 86, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.86.055501	journal	November 2012
Precision measurement of the neutron $β$ -decay asymmetry Mendenhall, M. P.; Pattie, R. W.; Bagdasarova, Y. Physical Review C, Vol. 87, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.87.032501	journal	March 2013
Electromagnetic effects in the decay of polarized neutrons Shann, R. T. Il Nuovo Cimento A, Vol. 5, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02734566	journal	October 1971
Measurement of the neutron lifetime using a gravitational trap and a low-temperature Fomblin coating Serebrov, A.; Varlamov, V.; Kharitonov, A. Physics Letters B, Vol. 605, Issue 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2004.11.013	journal	January 2005
Beta-Decay Asymmetry of the Neutron and $\frac{g_{A}}{g_{V}}$ Bopp, P.; Dubbers, D.; Hornig, L. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 56, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.56.919	journal	March 1986
Axial, scalar, and tensor charges of the nucleon from $2 + 1 + 1$ -flavor Lattice QCD Bhattacharya, Tanmoy; Cirigliano, Vincenzo; Cohen, Saul D. Physical Review D, Vol. 94, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.94.054508	journal	September 2016
A solenoidal electron spectrometer for a precision measurement of the neutron -asymmetry with ultracold neutrons Plaster, B.; Carr, R.; Filippone, B. W. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 595, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2008.07.143	journal	October 2008
Sharpening Low-Energy, Standard-Model Tests via Correlation Coefficients in Neutron $β$ Decay Gardner, S.; Zhang, C. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 86, Issue 25 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.5666	journal	June 2001
First Measurement of the Neutron $β$ Asymmetry with Ultracold Neutrons Pattie, R. W.; Anaya, J.; Back, H. O. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 102, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.012301	journal	January 2009
Order- $α$ radiative corrections for semileptonic decays of polarized baryons Glück, F.; Tóth, K. Physical Review D, Vol. 46, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.46.2090	journal	September 1992
Improved Determination of the Neutron Lifetime Yue, A. T.; Dewey, M. S.; Gilliam, D. M. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 111, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.222501	journal	November 2013
A multiwire proportional chamber for precision studies of neutron decay angular correlations Ito, T. M.; Carr, R.; Filippone, B. W. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 571, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2006.11.026	journal	February 2007
A measurement of the neutron lifetime using the method of storage of ultracold neutrons and detection of inelastically up-scattered neutrons Arzumanov, S.; Bondarenko, L.; Chernyavsky, S. Physics Letters B, Vol. 745 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2015.04.021	journal	May 2015
Superallowed $0^{+} \to 0^{+}$ nuclear $β$ decays: 2014 critical survey, with precise results for $V_{u d}$ and CKM unitarity Hardy, J. C.; Towner, I. S. Physical Review C, Vol. 91, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.91.025501	journal	February 2015
The measurement of the beta asymmetry in the decay of polarized neutrons Liaud, P.; Schreckenbach, K.; Kossakowski, R. Nuclear Physics A, Vol. 612, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0375-9474(96)00325-9	journal	January 1997
Determination of the electron$ndash$antineutrino angular correlation coefficient a0 and the parameter \|$\lambda$\| $equal$ \|GA/GV \| in free neutron $\beta$-decay from measurements of the integrated energy spectrum of recoil protons stored in an ion trap Byrne, J.; Dawber, P. G.; Grinten, M. G. D. van der Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics, Vol. 28, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1088/0954-3899/28/6/314	journal	April 2002
First direct constraints on Fierz interference in free-neutron $β$ decay Hickerson, K. P.; Sun, X.; Bagdasarova, Y. Physical Review C, Vol. 96, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.96.042501	journal	October 2017
Corrigendum: Corrected value of the beta-emission asymmetry in the decay of polarized neutrons measured in 1990 Yerozolimsky, B.; Kuznetsov, I.; Mostovoy, Yu. Physics Letters B, Vol. 412, Issue 3-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0370-2693(97)01004-6	journal	October 1997
Performance of the Los Alamos National Laboratory spallation-driven solid-deuterium ultra-cold neutron source Saunders, A.; Makela, M.; Bagdasarova, Y. Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 84, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4770063	journal	January 2013
Right-handed charged currents in the era of the Large Hadron Collider Alioli, S.; Cirigliano, V.; Dekens, W. Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2017, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2017)086	journal	May 2017
Is the Unitarity of the Quark-Mixing CKM Matrix Violated in Neutron $β$ -Decay? Abele, H.; Astruc Hoffmann, M.; Baeßler, S. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 88, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.211801	journal	May 2002
Global effective-field-theory analysis of new-physics effects in (semi)leptonic kaon decays González-Alonso, Martín; Camalich, Jorge Martin Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2016, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP12(2016)052	journal	December 2016
Probing novel scalar and tensor interactions from (ultra)cold neutrons to the LHC Bhattacharya, Tanmoy; Cirigliano, Vincenzo; Cohen, Saul D. Physical Review D, Vol. 85, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.85.054512	journal	March 2012
A revised value for the neutron lifetime measured using a Penning trap Byrne, J.; Dawber, P. G.; Habeck, C. G. Europhysics Letters (EPL), Vol. 33, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i1996-00319-x	journal	January 1996
A high-field adiabatic fast passage ultracold neutron spin flipper for the UCNA experiment Holley, A. T.; Broussard, L. J.; Davis, J. L. Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 83, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4732822	journal	July 2012
Measurement of the Proton Asymmetry Parameter in Neutron Beta Decay Schumann, M.; Kreuz, M.; Deissenroth, M. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 100, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.151801	journal	April 2008
Measurement of the Electron-Antineutrino Angular Correlation in Neutron $β$ Decay Darius, G.; Byron, W. A.; DeAngelis, C. R. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 119, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.042502	journal	July 2017
Improved Calculation of Electroweak Radiative Corrections and the Value of $V_{u d}$ Marciano, William J.; Sirlin, Alberto Physical Review Letters, Vol. 96, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.032002	journal	January 2006
Experimental value of G A/GV from a measurement of both P-odd correlations in free-neutron decay Mostovoi, Yu. A.; Kuznetsov, I. A.; Solovei, V. A. Physics of Atomic Nuclei, Vol. 64, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1134/1.1423745	journal	November 2001
Neutron lifetime measurement with the UCN trap-in-trap MAMBO II Pichlmaier, A.; Varlamov, V.; Schreckenbach, K. Physics Letters B, Vol. 693, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2010.08.032	journal	October 2010
Beta decays and non-standard interactions in the LHC era Cirigliano, Vincenzo; Gardner, Susan; Holstein, Barry R. Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics, Vol. 71 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ppnp.2013.03.005	journal	July 2013
Analysis of neutron β-decay Wilkinson, D. H. Nuclear Physics A, Vol. 377, Issue 2-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/0375-9474(82)90051-3	journal	March 1982
Sealed drift tube cosmic ray veto counters Rios, R.; Tatar, E.; Bacon, J. D. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 637, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2010.12.098	journal	May 2011
Possible Tests of Time Reversal Invariance in Beta Decay Jackson, J. D.; Treiman, S. B.; Wyld, H. W. Physical Review, Vol. 106, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.106.517	journal	May 1957
Determination of the Axial-Vector Weak Coupling Constant with Ultracold Neutrons Liu, J.; Mendenhall, M. P.; Holley, A. T. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.181803	journal	October 2010
Review of Particle Physics Group, Particle Data; Amsler, C.; Doser, M. Elsevier https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-11249	text	January 2008
Measurement of the neutron lifetime using a gravitational trap and a low-temperature Fomblin coating Serebrov, A.; Varlamov, V.; Kharitonov, A. Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Vol. 110, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.6028/jres.110.049	journal	July 2005
Sharpening Low-Energy, Standard-Model Tests via Correlation Coefficients in Neutron beta Decay Gardner, S.; Zhang, C. The American Physical Society https://doi.org/10.17877/de290r-1087	text	January 2001
Review of Particle Physics Tanabashi, M.; Hagiwara, K.; Hikasa, K. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, DESY, Hamburg https://doi.org/10.3204/pubdb-2018-03100	text	January 2018
Review of Particle Physics Beringer, J.; Arguin, J.; Barnett, R. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, DESY, Hamburg https://doi.org/10.3204/phppubdb-24149	text	January 2012
A solenoidal electron spectrometer for a precision measurement of the neutron $β$-asymmetry with ultracold neutrons Plaster, B.; Carr, R.; Filippone, B. W. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.0806.2097	text	January 2008
Determination of the Weak Axial Vector Coupling from a Measurement of the Beta-Asymmetry Parameter A in Neutron Beta Decay Mund, D.; Maerkisch, B.; Deissenroth, M. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1204.0013	text	January 2012
Right-handed charged currents in the era of the Large Hadron Collider Alioli, S.; Cirigliano, V.; Dekens, W. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1703.04751	text	January 2017
A Multiwire Proportional Chamber for Precision Studies of Neutron Beta Decay Angular Correlations Ito, T. M.; Carr, R.; Filippone, B. W. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.physics/0702085	text	January 2007

Cited By (14)

NoMoS: An R × B drift momentum spectrometer for beta decay studies Moser, Daniel; Abele, Hartmut; Bosina, Joachim EPJ Web of Conferences, Vol. 219 https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201921904003	journal	January 2019
Final results for the neutron β -asymmetry parameter A ₀ from the UCNA experiment Plaster, B.; Adamek, E.; Allgeier, B. EPJ Web of Conferences, Vol. 219 https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201921904004	journal	January 2019
Design of the magnet system of the neutron decay facility PERC Wang, Xiangzun; Ziener, Carmen; Abele, Hartmut EPJ Web of Conferences, Vol. 219 https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201921904007	journal	January 2019
Nucleon axial radius and muonic hydrogen—a new analysis and review Hill, Richard J.; Kammel, Peter; Marciano, William J. Reports on Progress in Physics, Vol. 81, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6633/aac190	journal	July 2018
$Q_{EC}$ -value determination for ${}^{21}{Na} \to {}^{21}{Ne}$ and ${}^{23}{Mg} \to {}^{23}{Na}$ mirror-nuclei decays using high-precision mass spectrometry with ISOLTRAP at the CERN ISOLDE facility Karthein, J.; Atanasov, D.; Blaum, K. Physical Review C, Vol. 100, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevc.100.015502	journal	July 2019
Radiative corrections of order $O (α E_{e} / m_{N})$ to Sirlin’s radiative corrections of order $O (α / π)$ to the neutron lifetime Ivanov, A. N.; Höllwieser, R.; Troitskaya, N. I. Physical Review D, Vol. 99, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.99.093006	journal	May 2019
FLAG Review 2019 Aoki, S.; Aoki, Y.; Becirevic, D. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, DESY, Hamburg https://doi.org/10.3204/pubdb-2020-00055	text	January 2019
FLAG Review 2019: Flavour Lattice Averaging Group (FLAG) Aoki, S.; Aoki, Y.; Bečirević, D. The European Physical Journal C, Vol. 80, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-019-7354-7	journal	February 2020
FLAG Review 2019 Aoki, S.; Aoki, Y.; Bečirević, D. Springer https://doi.org/10.7892/boris.141201	text	January 2020
FLAG Review 2019 Aoki, S.; Aoki, Y.; Becirevic, D. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, DESY, Hamburg https://doi.org/10.3204/pubdb-2020-04064	text	January 2020
Nucleon Axial Radius and Muonic Hydrogen - A New Analysis and Review Hill, Richard J.; Kammel, Peter; Marciano, William J. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1708.08462	text	January 2017
Nucleon charges with dynamical overlap fermions Yamanaka, Nodoka; Hashimoto, Shoji; Kaneko, Takashi arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1805.10507	text	January 2018
Measurement of the Weak Axial-Vector Coupling Constant in the Decay of Free Neutrons Using a Pulsed Cold Neutron Beam Märkisch, Bastian; Mest, Holger; Saul, Heiko arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1812.04666	text	January 2018
NoMoS: An $R \times B$ Drift Momentum Spectrometer for Beta Decay Studies Moser, Daniel; Abele, Hartmut; Bosina, Joachim arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1906.04511	text	January 2019