Neutron Lifetime Measurements
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Physics Laboratory, Gaithersburg, MD 20899 (United States)
Precision measurements of neutron beta decay address basic questions in nuclear and particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. As the simplest semileptonic decay system, the free neutron plays an important role in understanding the physics of the weak interaction, and improving the precision of the neutron lifetime is fundamental to testing the validity of the theory. The neutron lifetime also directly affects the relative abundance of primordial helium in big bang nucleosynthesis. There are two distinct strategies for measuring the lifetime. Experiments using cold neutrons measure the absolute specific activity of a beam of neutrons by counting decay protons; experiments using confined, ultracold neutrons determine the lifetime by counting neutrons that remain after some elapsed time. The status of the recent lifetime measurements using both of these techniques is discussed.
- OSTI ID:
- 20894968
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 870, Issue 1; Conference: CIPAN2006: 9. conference on intersections of particle and nuclear physics, Rio Grande (Puerto Rico), 30 May - 3 Jun 2006; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.2402605; (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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