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Title: Experimental Approach to Search for Free Neutron-Antineutron Oscillations Based on Coherent Neutron and Antineutron Mirror Reflection

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters

An observation of neutron-antineutron oscillations (n – n¯), which violate both B and B – L conservation, would constitute a scientific discovery of fundamental importance to physics and cosmology. A stringent upper bound on its transition rate would make an important contribution to our understanding of the baryon asymmetry of the Universe by eliminating the postsphaleron baryogenesis scenario in the light quark sector. We show that one can design an experiment using slow neutrons that in principle can reach the required sensitivity of τn–n¯ ~ 1010 s in the oscillation time, an improvement of ~ 104 in the oscillation probability relative to the existing limit for free neutrons. The improved statistical accuracy needed to reach this sensitivity can be achieved by allowing both the neutron and antineutron components of the developing superposition state to coherently reflect from mirrors. We present a quantitative analysis of this scenario and show that, for sufficiently small transverse momenta of n/n¯ and for certain choices of nuclei for the n/n¯ guide material, the relative phase shift of the n and n¯ components upon reflection and the n¯ annihilation rate can be small enough to maintain sufficient coherence to benefit from the greater phase space acceptance the mirror provides.

Research Organization:
Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0015882
OSTI ID:
1525340
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1612340
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Vol. 122 Journal Issue: 22; ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 13 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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