Progress Towards a Precision Measurement of the Neutron Lifetime Using Magnetically Trapped Ultracold Neutrons

Journal Article · Tue Jul 11 04:00:00 EDT 2006 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2220390· OSTI ID:20875836

Seo, P -N; DuBose, F H; Golub, R; Korobkina, E; O'Shaughnessy, C M; Palmquist, G R ^[1]; Coakley, K J ^[2]; Doyle, J M; Yang, L ^[3]; Lamoreaux, S K ^[4]; Mumm, H P; Thompson, A K ^[5]; Yang, G L ^[5]; Huffman, P R ^[1]

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1. North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695 (United States)
2. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO 80303 (United States)
3. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
4. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States)
5. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899 (United States)

As part of an on-going program utilizing magnetically trapped ultracold neutrons (UCNs), we are developing a technique that offers the possibility of improving the precision of the neutron lifetime by more than an order of magnitude. The experiment works by loading an Ioffe-type superconducting magnetic trap with UCNs through inelastic scattering of 0.89 nm neutrons with phonons in superfluid 4He. Trapped neutrons are detected when they decay; charged decay electrons ionize helium atoms in the superfluid resulting in scintillation light that is recorded in real time using photomultiplier tubes. At present, we are installing a larger and deeper superconducting magnetic trap into our apparatus, implementing techniques to reduce background events, and working to increase the neutron decay detection efficiency. We report the status of the construction of the improved apparatus.

• OSTI ID: 20875836
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Journal Name: AIP Conference Proceedings Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 842; ISSN APCPCS; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ACCURACY
ELECTRONS
HELIUM
HELIUM 4
INELASTIC SCATTERING
IONIZATION
LIFETIME
PARTICLE DECAY
PHONONS
SCINTILLATIONS
SUPERFLUIDITY
TRAPPING
TRAPS
ULTRACOLD NEUTRONS