U.S.-Austria Cooperative Research: Comparison of Interferometric Measuring Methods (Physics and Materials Research)

该奖项将支持一个为期两年的中子合作项目， 物理学在美国-奥地利合作科学计划。 美国 调查人员是汉普郡学院的赫伯特J.伯恩斯坦教授; Michael A.霍恩，石山学院;和教授克利福德 G. Shull，马萨诸塞州理工学院和汉普郡学院。 他们的奥地利合作者是赫尔穆特·劳赫教授和 安东·蔡林格教授， 奥地利大学，维也纳。 该合作项目将重点关注 极冷中子实验和中子的发展 菲涅尔透镜。 以前的中子光学实验利用了 中子在两个能量区域，所谓的热中子和 超冷中子 中能中子源， 被称为非常冷的中子，将很快在 法国格勒诺布尔劳厄-朗之万研究所（ILL）高通量反应堆， 在这个项目中，奥地利研究人员的大部分工作都是在 贯彻 在这个能量范围内中子的可用性， 对应于80到100埃的中子波长，将允许 合作的科学家进行各种基础实验 并将他们之前的研究扩展到这个有趣的新领域， 波长区域 伯恩斯坦和霍恩教授将提供 这些VCN实验的理论支持。 第二个项目 涉及中子菲涅耳透镜的合作研究， 以实现可行的透镜聚焦中子束。 美国 和奥地利的研究小组进行了互补的研究和设计， 致力于开发这种镜片的活动。 通过 结合各自的努力，科学家们希望加快 实现这一目标。 这些实验及其相关的理论研究是 期望增加我们对基本性质的理解， 中子及其与物质的相互作用。 中子是地球上 大质量的粒子，但通常用于证明波状 特性. 这使得中子干涉测量法成为 这是一个非常有用的工具， 学习基础量子物理学

This award will support a two-year collaborative project in neutron physics under the U.S.-Austria Cooperative Science Program. The U.S. investigators are Professor Herbert J. Bernstein, Hampshire College; Professor Michael A. Horne, Stonehill College; and Professor Clifford G. Shull, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Hampshire College. Their Austrian collaborators are Professor Dr. Helmut Rauch and Professor Dr. Anton Zeilinger, both of the Atomic Institute of the Austrian Universities, Vienna. The cooperative project will focus on very cold neutron (VCN) experiments and on the development of neutron Fresnel lenses. Previous neutron optics experimentation has made use of neutrons in two energy regions, so-called thermal neutrons and ultra-cold neutrons. A source of intermediate-energy neutrons, referred to as very cold neutrons, will soon be available at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) High Flux Reactor in Grenoble, France, where much of the work of the Austrian researchers in this project is carried out. The availability of neutrons in this energy range, corresponding to neutron wavelengths of 80 to 100 Angstroms, will allow the cooperating scientists to perform various fundamental experiments and to extend their previous research to this interesting new wavelength region. Professors Bernstein and Horne will provide theoretical support of these VCN experiments. The second project involves a cooperative study of neutron Fresnel lenses, with a view toward achieving workable lenses for focusing a neutron beam. The U.S. and Austrian groups have carried out complementary research and design activities directed toward the development of such lenses. By combining their respective efforts, the scientists expect to hasten the attainment of this goal. These experiments and their associated theoretical investigations are expected to increase our understanding of the basic properties of neutrons and their interaction with matter. The neutron is the most massive particle yet used to routinely demonstrate wave-like properties. This makes neutron interferometry one of the most sensitive probes of matter, and it is thus an extremely useful tool for studying fundamental quantum physics.