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

该奖项将支持美国-奥地利合作科学计划下一个为期两年的中子物理合作项目。美国调查人员是汉普郡学院的赫伯特·伯恩斯坦教授；石山学院教授Michael A. Horne；以及麻省理工学院和汉普郡学院的Clifford G. Shull教授。他们的合作者是维也纳奥地利大学原子研究所的Helmut Rauch博士和Anton Zeilinger博士教授。该合作项目将侧重于极冷中子（VCN）实验和中子菲涅耳透镜的开发。以前的中子光学实验利用了两个能量区域的中子，即所谓的热中子和超冷中子。在法国格勒诺布尔的Laue-Langevin （ILL）高通量反应堆中，一种被称为极冷中子的中能量中子源将很快可用，奥地利研究人员在这个项目中的大部分工作都是在那里进行的。中子在这个能量范围内的可用性，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，并将他们以前的研究扩展到这个有趣的新波长区域。伯恩斯坦教授和霍恩教授将为这些VCN实验提供理论支持。第二个项目涉及中子菲涅耳透镜的合作研究，以期实现可用于聚焦中子束的透镜。美国和奥地利的团体已经开展了针对这种镜片开发的互补研究和设计活动。通过联合他们各自的努力，科学家们期望加速这一目标的实现。这些实验及其相关的理论研究有望增加我们对中子的基本性质及其与物质的相互作用的理解。中子是迄今为止用来证明波浪性质的质量最大的粒子。这使得中子干涉测量成为最灵敏的物质探针之一，因此它是研究基础量子物理学的一个极其有用的工具。

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.