RUI: Search for the Electric Dipole Moment of the Neutron

该奖项支持的主要物理学计划是寻找中子的电偶极矩，如果找到，将标志着粒子物理学标准模型物理学之外的新物理学，该标准模型描述了已知物质的主要基本成分的存在和性质。 寻找超越标准模型的物理学是21世纪物理学的主要目标之一。 这项实验被称为中子电偶极矩（nEDM），将在橡树岭国家实验室进行，使用的仪器由一个机构联盟建造和测试。 探测器的建造和数据采集将在未来几年内进行，为瓦尔帕莱索大学的本科生提供前沿研究的第一手经验。中子性质的精确测量为寻找违反基本对称性和对标准模型的有效性进行严格检验提供了机会。标准模型几乎禁止了中子的永久电偶极矩的存在，而标准模型的扩展预测了中子在不同强度下的电偶极矩，这些强度可以通过这个实验获得。 nEDM的发现意味着违反了时间反演不变性和电荷宇称对称性，这取决于它的大小，对宇宙中的粒子-反粒子不对称性有影响。粒子电偶极矩的测量为标准模型的扩展提供了一些最严格的限制。该实验旨在将灵敏度提高到以前实验的100倍。

The main physics program supported by this award is to search for an electric dipole moment of the neutron, which if found would signal new physics beyond the physics of the Standard Model of particle physics, which describes the existence and properties of the principal elementary constituents of known matter. The search for physics Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) is one of the primary goals of physics in the 21st century. The experiment, called the neutron Electric Dipole Moment (nEDM), will be carried out at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, using instruments constructed and tested by a consortium of institutions. Construction of the detector and the data taking will take place in the next few years, providing first hand experience in cutting edge research for undergraduates at Valparaiso University.Precision measurement of the properties of the neutron presents an opportunity to search for violations of fundamental symmetries and to make critical tests of the validity of the Standard Model. The Standard Model nearly prohibits the existence of a permanent electric dipole moment of the neutron, whereas extensions to the Standard Model predict an electric dipole moment of the neutron at varying strengths that are potentially attainable by this experiment. The discovery of a nEDM would imply a violation of time reversal invariance and a violation of charge-parity symmetry that, depending on its magnitude, has implications for the particle-antiparticle asymmetry in the universe. Measurements of the particle electric dipole moment provide some of the tightest constraints on extensions to the Standard Model. The experiment is designed to improve the sensitivity by a factor of 100 compared to previous experiments.