106 research outputs found
Impact of Neutron Decay Experiments on non-Standard Model Physics
This paper gives a brief overview of the present and expected future limits
on physics beyond the Standard Model (SM) from neutron beta decay, which is
described by two parameters only within the SM. Since more than two observables
are accessible, the problem is over-determined. Thus, precise measurements of
correlations in neutron decay can be used to study the SM as well to search for
evidence of possible extensions to it. Of particular interest in this context
are the search for right-handed currents or for scalar and tensor interactions.
Precision measurements of neutron decay observables address important open
questions of particle physics and cosmology, and are generally complementary to
direct searches for new physics beyond the SM in high-energy physics. Free
neutron decay is therefore a very active field, with a number of new
measurements underway worldwide. We present the impact of recent developments.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures; Proceedings of the 5th International BEYOND 2010
Conference, Cape Town, South Africa (2010), World Scientific, accepted for
publication; Corrected typo
Magnetic-field measurement and analysis for the Muon g-2 Experiment at Fermilab
The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL) Muon g-2 Experiment has measured the anomalous precession frequency aμ(gμ-2)/2 of the muon to a combined precision of 0.46 parts per million with data collected during its first physics run in 2018. This paper documents the measurement of the magnetic field in the muon storage ring. The magnetic field is monitored by systems and calibrated in terms of the equivalent proton spin precession frequency in a spherical water sample at 34.7C. The measured field is weighted by the muon distribution resulting in ωp′, the denominator in the ratio ωa/ωp′ that together with known fundamental constants yields aμ. The reported uncertainty on ωp′ for the Run-1 data set is 114 ppb consisting of uncertainty contributions from frequency extraction, calibration, mapping, tracking, and averaging of 56 ppb, and contributions from fast transient fields of 99 ppb
Constraints on spin-dependent short-range interactions using gravitational quantum levels of ultracold neutrons
In this paper, we discuss a possibility to improve constraints on
spin-dependent short-range interactions in the range of 1 - 200 micrometer
significantly. For such interactions, our constraints are without competition
at the moment. They were obtained through the observation of gravitationally
bound states of ultracold neutrons. We are going to improve these constraints
by about three orders of magnitude in a dedicated experiment with polarized
neutrons using the next-generation spectrometer GRANIT.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in the Proceedings of
the International Workshop on Particle Physics with Cold Neutrons, Grenoble,
May 2008, to be published in Nucl. Instr. and Meth.
A New Constraint for the Coupling of Axion-like particles to Matter via Ultra-Cold Neutron Gravitational Experiments
We present a new constraint for the axion monopole-dipole coupling in the
range of 1 micrometer to a few millimeters, previously unavailable for
experimental study. The constraint was obtained using our recent results on the
observation of neutron quantum states in the Earth's gravitational field. We
exploit the ultimate sensitivity of ultra-cold neutrons (UCN) in the lowest
gravitational states above a material surface to any additional interaction
between the UCN and the matter, if the characteristic interaction range is
within the mentioned domain. In particular, we find that the upper limit for
the axion monopole-dipole coupling constant is (g_p g_s)/(\hbar c)<2 x 10^{-15}
for the axion mass in the ``promising'' axion mass region of ~1 meV.Comment: 5 pages 3 figure
Frequency shifts in gravitational resonance spectroscopy
Quantum states of ultracold neutrons in the gravitational field are to be
characterized through gravitational resonance spectroscopy. This paper
discusses systematic effects that appear in the spectroscopic measurements. The
discussed frequency shifts, which we call Stern-Gerlach shift, interference
shift, and spectator state shift, appear in conceivable measurement schemes and
have general importance. These shifts have to be taken into account in
precision experiments
Measuring the proton spectrum in neutron decay - latest results with aSPECT
The retardation spectrometer aSPECT was built to measure the shape of the
proton spectrum in free neutron decay with high precision. This allows us to
determine the antineutrino electron angular correlation coefficient a. We aim
for a precision more than one order of magnitude better than the present best
value, which is Delta_a /a = 5%.
In a recent beam time performed at the Institut Laue-Langevin during April /
May 2008 we reached a statistical accuracy of about 2% per 24 hours measurement
time. Several systematic effects were investigated experimentally. We expect
the total relative uncertainty to be well below 5%.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Conference Proceedings of the
International Workshop on Particle Physics with Slow Neutrons 2008 held at
the ILL, France. To be published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in
Physics Research, Section
Ultracold-neutron infrastructure for the gravitational spectrometer GRANIT
The gravitational spectrometer GRANIT will be set up at the Institut Laue
Langevin. It will profit from the high ultracold neutron density produced by a
dedicated source. A monochromator made of crystals from graphite intercalated
with potassium will provide a neutron beam with 0.89 nm incident on the source.
The source employs superthermal conversion of cold neutrons in superfluid
helium, in a vessel made from BeO ceramics with Be windows. A special
extraction technique has been tested which feeds the spectrometer only with
neutrons with a vertical velocity component v < 20 cm/s, thus keeping the
density in the source high. This new source is expected to provide a density of
up to 800 1/cm3 for the spectrometer.Comment: accepted for publication in Proceedings International Workshop on
Particle Physics with Slow Neutron
A quantum mechanical description of the experiment on the observation of gravitationally bound states
Quantum states in the Earth's gravitational field were observed, when
ultra-cold neutrons fall under gravity. The experimental results can be
described by the quantum mechanical scattering model as it is presented here.
We also discuss other geometries of the experimental setup which correspond to
the absence or the reversion of gravity. Since our quantum mechanical model
describes, particularly, the experimentally realized situation of reversed
gravity quantitatively, we can practically rule out alternative explanations of
the quantum states in terms of pure confinement effects.Comment: LaTeX, 10 pages, 4 figures, v2: references adde
Nab: Measurement Principles, Apparatus and Uncertainties
The Nab collaboration will perform a precise measurement of 'a', the
electron-neutrino correlation parameter, and 'b', the Fierz interference term
in neutron beta decay, in the Fundamental Neutron Physics Beamline at the SNS,
using a novel electric/magnetic field spectrometer and detector design. The
experiment is aiming at the 10^{-3} accuracy level in (Delta a)/a, and will
provide an independent measurement of lambda = G_A/G_V, the ratio of
axial-vector to vector coupling constants of the nucleon. Nab also plans to
perform the first ever measurement of 'b' in neutron decay, which will provide
an independent limit on the tensor weak coupling.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, talk presented at the International
Workshop on Particle Physics with Slow Neutrons, Grenoble, 29-31 May 2008; to
appear in Nucl. Instrum. Meth. in Physics Research
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