Improved Neutron Lifetime Measurement with UCN$\tau$

Gonzalez, Frank M.; Fries, E. M.; Cude-Woods, C.; Bailey, T.; Blatnik, M.; Broussard, L. J.; Callahan, N. B.; Choi, J.  H.; Clayton, S. M.; Currie, S. A.; Dawid, M.; Dees, E.  B.; Filippone, B. W.; Fox, W.; Geltenbort, P.; George, E.; Hayen, L.; Hickerson, K. P.; Hoffbauer, M. A.; Hoffman, K.; Holley, A. T.; Ito, T. M.; Komives, A.; Liu, C. -Y.; Makela, M.; Morris, C. L.; Musedinovic, R.; O’Shaughnessy, C.; Pattie, Jr., R. W.; Ramsey, John Clinton; Salvat, Daniel  J.; Saunders, Alexander; Sharapov, E. I.; Slutsky, S.; Su, V.; Sun, X.; Swank, C.; Tang, Z.; Uhrich, W.; Vanderwerp, J.; Walstrom, P.; Wang, Z.; Wei, W.; Young, A. R.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.127.162501

Title: Improved Neutron Lifetime Measurement with UCN$$\tau$$

Journal Article · Wed Oct 13 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.127.162501· OSTI ID:1899842

Gonzalez, Frank M. ^[1]; Fries, E. M. ^[2]; Cude-Woods, C. ^[3]; Bailey, T. ^[3]; Blatnik, M. ^[2];

^[4]; Callahan, N. B. ^[5]; Choi, J. H. ^[3];

^[6];

^[6]; Dawid, M. ^[7]; Dees, E. B. ^[3]; Filippone, B. W. ^[2]; Fox, W. ^[7]; Geltenbort, P. ^[8]; George, E. ^[9]; Hayen, L. ^[3]; Hickerson, K. P. ^[2];

^[6]; Hoffman, K. ^[9] more »

Indiana Univ., Bloomington, IN (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States); Duke Univ., Durham, NC (United States). Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Indiana Univ., Bloomington, IN (United States)
Inst. Laue-Langevin (ILL), Grenoble (France)
Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville, TN (United States)
DePauw Univ., Greencastle, IL (United States)
East Tennessee State Univ. (ETSU), Johnson CIty, TN (United States)
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Joint Inst. for Nuclear Research (JINR), Dubna (Russian Federation)

In this work, we report an improved measurement of the free neutron lifetime $$\tau_n$$ using the UCN$$\tau$$ apparatus at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. We count a total of approximately 38×10⁶ surviving ultracold neutrons (UCNs) after storing in UCN$$\tau$$’s magnetogravitational trap over two data acquisition campaigns in 2017 and 2018. We extract $$\tau$$_n from three blinded, independent analyses by both pairing long and short storage time runs to find a set of replicate $$\tau$$_n measurements and by performing a global likelihood fit to all data while self-consistently incorporating the β-decay lifetime. Both techniques achieve consistent results and find a value $$\tau$$_n=877.75±0.28_stat+0.22/–0.16_syst s. With this sensitivity, neutron lifetime experiments now directly address the impact of recent refinements in our understanding of the standard model for neutron decay.

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Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program

Contributing Organization:: UCNτ Collaboration

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725; FG02-ER41042; AC52-06NA25396; 89233218CNA000001; 1614545; 1914133; 1506459; 1553861; 1812340; 1714461; 1913789; AC05-00OR2272

OSTI ID:: 1899842

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 2000919

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-21-24910; TRN: US2311007

Journal Information:: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 127, Issue 16; ISSN 0031-9007

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Title: Improved Neutron Lifetime Measurement with UCN$$\tau$$

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