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arXiv · 2301.00460

First Measurement of Neutron Birefringence in Polarized $^{129}$Xe and $^{131}$Xe Nuclei

H. Lu·M. J. Barlow·D. Basler·P. Gutfreund·O. Holderer·A. Ioffe·S. Pasini·P. Pistel·Z. Salhi·K. Zhernenkov·B. M. Goodson·W. M. Snow·E. Babcock
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Abstract

We present the first measurements of polarized neutron birefringence in transmission through nuclear-polarized $^{129}$Xe and $^{131}$Xe gas and determine the neutron incoherent scattering lengths $b_i(^{129}Xe)=0.186\pm(0.021)_{stat.}\pm(0.004)_{syst.}\space\text{ fm}$ and $b_i(^{131}Xe)=2.09\pm(0.29)_{stat.}\pm(0.12)_{syst.}\space\text{ fm}$ for the first time. These results determine the essential parameter needed for interpretation of spin-dependent neutron-scattering studies on polarized xenon ensembles, with possible future applications ranging from tests of time-reversal violation to mode-entangled neutron scattering experiments on nuclear-polarized systems.

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H. Lu, M. J. Barlow, D. Basler, P. Gutfreund, O. Holderer, A. Ioffe, S. Pasini, P. Pistel, Z. Salhi, K. Zhernenkov, B. M. Goodson, W. M. Snow, E. Babcock. 2023-01-01. First Measurement of Neutron Birefringence in Polarized $^{129}$Xe and $^{131}$Xe Nuclei. https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.00460

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