Construction of a storage device for ultra-cold neutrons (UCN) using superconducting magnets in order to measure the lifetime of the free neutron

使用超导磁体构建超冷中子（UCN）存储装置，以测量自由中子的寿命

• 批准号: 62341937
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Stephan Paul
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Arbeitsgruppe Hadronenstruktur und Fundamentale Symmetrien
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2007-12-31 至 2012-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/62341937?language=en
• 关键词: Construction; storage; device; ultra; cold

The neutron lifetime n is one of the elementary natural constants and plays an important role in many fields of physics. For particle physics it is one of the fundamental quantities along with the correlations in neutron decay, namely the directions and spin of the decay products in reference to the helicity/spin of the neutron. One of these correlations together with the neutron lifetime enable us to test the unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix and the Cabibbo model respectively. Furthermore, n plays a vital role in primordial nucleosynthesis having a big influence on the primordial helium abundance. Hence it influences the standard model of cosmology. The neutron lifetime has been measured repeatedly in the last decades, but there is still great uncertainty about the real value; the result of the most recent experiment deviated by more than 6  from the world average adopted by the Particle Data Group. To remeasure n, we want to store ultra-cold, thus very slow, neutrons (UCN) in a trap with magnetic walls created by superconducting coils. In this way collisions of the UCN with the material walls during the storage period are avoided and with them losses that result from reflections at these walls. In the storage volume of approx. 750 dm3 a big number of neutrons may be stored so that a statistical uncertainty of ∆n< 0.1 s is reached within short time. The neutron lifetime will be measured by recording both, the time distribution of the -decay protons in real-time and the number of neutrons surviving after different storage times. Probably the most essential properties of the proposed experiment are the handles on systematic effects together with good statistics: almost all of the storage parameters can be varied to study those effects in depth. We expect a total experimental uncertainty of less than 0.1 s.

中子寿命n是基本的自然常量之一，在许多物理领域中起着重要的作用。对于粒子物理学来说，它是与中子衰变中的关联性一起的基本量之一，即衰变产物的方向和自旋相对于中子的螺旋度/自旋。这些关联之一与中子寿命一起使我们能够分别检验Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa矩阵和Cabibbo模型的唯一性。此外，n在原始核合成中起着至关重要的作用，对原始氦丰度有很大影响。因此，它影响了宇宙学的标准模型。在过去的几十年里，对中子寿命进行了多次测量，但实际值仍然存在很大的不确定性；最近一次实验的结果与粒子数据小组采用的世界平均水平偏差超过6。为了重新测量n，我们希望将超冷的、因此非常慢的中子(Ucn)存储在由超导线圈产生的磁壁的陷阱中。通过这种方式，避免了UCN在存储期间与材料墙的碰撞，以及由于在这些墙的反射而导致的损失。在存储容量约为750dm~3可以储存大量的中子，从而在短时间内达到∆n&lt；0.1 S的统计不确定度。通过实时记录衰变质子的时间分布和不同存储时间后存活的中子数量来测量中子寿命。这个实验最本质的特点可能是对系统效应的处理，以及良好的统计数据：几乎所有的存储参数都可以改变，以深入研究这些影响。我们预计S的总实验不确定度小于0.1.