RUI: United States-Russia Investigation of the Neutron-Neutron Scattering Length

四十多年来，核物理学家一直提议在各种设备上进行实验，以测量两个中子之间的引力强度。这种引力的强度将通过直接碰撞中子来测量，但还没有成功的测量结果。两个主要障碍是没有足够强的中子源，以及对中子源特性和其他实验参数没有足够详细的了解。在NSF的支持下，一个国际合作正在俄罗斯斯内真斯克的全技术研究所建造一个实验仪器，以执行有史以来第一个直接中子-中子散射实验。Snejinsk的Yaguar反应堆具有必要的中子强度，对实验设备进行计算机建模有助于设备的设计，并将使我们能够从数据中提取感兴趣的数量。葛底斯堡学院有让学生参与物理研究的历史，并正在向本科生传授这一标志性实验所需的一些计算技术。

For more than forty years nuclear physicists have proposed experiments at various facilities to measure the strength of attraction between two neutrons. This strength of attraction would be measured by directly colliding neutrons and yet no successful measurements have been done. The two primary obstacles have been a not having an intense enough source of neutrons and not having a sufficiently detailed knowledge of the neutron source characteristics and other experimental parameters. With support from the NSF, an international collaboration is constructing an experimental apparatus at the All Technical Institute in Snezhinsk, Russia to perform the first ever direct neutron-neutron scattering experiment. The YAGUAR reactor in Snezhinsk has the requisite neutron intensity, and computer modeling of the experimental apparatus has helped with the design of the apparatus and will allow us to extract the quantities of interest from the data. Gettysburg College has a history of incorporating student participation in physics research, and is teaching undergraduates some of the computational techniques necessary for this hallmark experiment.