24 research outputs found
Neutron Beta Decay Studies with Nab
Precision measurements in neutron beta decay serve to determine the coupling
constants of beta decay and allow for several stringent tests of the standard
model. This paper discusses the design and the expected performance of the Nab
spectrometer.Comment: Submitted to Proceedings of the Conference CIPANP12, St.Petersburg,
Florida, May 201
High-Efficiency Resonant RF Spin Rotator with Broad Phase Space Acceptance for Pulsed Polarized Cold Neutron Beams
We have developed a radio-frequency resonant spin rotator to reverse the
neutron polarization in a 9.5 cm x 9.5 cm pulsed cold neutron beam with high
efficiency over a broad cold neutron energy range. The effect of the spin
reversal by the rotator on the neutron beam phase space is compared
qualitatively to RF neutron spin flippers based on adiabatic fast passage. The
spin rotator does not change the kinetic energy of the neutrons and leaves the
neutron beam phase space unchanged to high precision. We discuss the design of
the spin rotator and describe two types of transmission-based neutron spin-flip
efficiency measurements where the neutron beam was both polarized and analyzed
by optically-polarized 3He neutron spin filters. The efficiency of the spin
rotator was measured to be 98.0+/-0.8% on resonance for neutron energies from
3.3 to 18.4 meV over the full phase space of the beam. As an example of the
application of this device to an experiment we describe the integration of the
RF spin rotator into an apparatus to search for the small parity-violating
asymmetry A_gamma in polarized cold neutron capture on para-hydrogen by the
NPDGamma collaboration at LANSCE
The Nab Experiment: A Precision Measurement of Unpolarized Neutron Beta Decay
Neutron beta decay is one of the most fundamental processes in nuclear
physics and provides sensitive means to uncover the details of the weak
interaction. Neutron beta decay can evaluate the ratio of axial-vector to
vector coupling constants in the standard model, , through
multiple decay correlations. The Nab experiment will carry out measurements of
the electron-neutrino correlation parameter with a precision of and the Fierz interference term to
in unpolarized free neutron beta decay. These results, along with a more
precise measurement of the neutron lifetime, aim to deliver an independent
determination of the ratio with a precision of that will allow an evaluation of and sensitively
test CKM unitarity, independent of nuclear models. Nab utilizes a novel, long
asymmetric spectrometer that guides the decay electron and proton to two large
area silicon detectors in order to precisely determine the electron energy and
an estimation of the proton momentum from the proton time of flight. The Nab
spectrometer is being commissioned at the Fundamental Neutron Physics Beamline
at the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Lab. We present an
overview of the Nab experiment and recent updates on the spectrometer,
analysis, and systematic effects.Comment: Presented at PPNS201
First Observation of -odd Asymmetry in Polarized Neutron Capture on Hydrogen
We report the first observation of the parity-violating 2.2 MeV gamma-ray
asymmetry in neutron-proton capture using polarized cold
neutrons incident on a liquid parahydrogen target at the Spallation Neutron
Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. isolates the , \mbox{} component of the weak
nucleon-nucleon interaction, which is dominated by pion exchange and can be
directly related to a single coupling constant in either the DDH meson exchange
model or pionless EFT. We measured , which implies a DDH weak coupling of
and a pionless
EFT constant of MeV. We describe the experiment, data
analysis, systematic uncertainties, and the implications of the result.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure