Measurements of ultracold neutron lifetimes in solid deuterium

C. L. Morris; J. M. Anaya; T. J. Bowles; B. W. Filippone; P. Geltenbort; R. E. Hill; M. Hino; S. Hoedl; G. E. Hogan; T. M. Ito; T. Kawai; K. Kirch; S. K. Lamoreaux; C. -Y. Liu; M. Makela; L. J. Marek; J. W. Martin; R. N. Mortensen; A. Pichlmaier; A. Saunders; S. J. Seestrom; D. Smith; W. Teasdale; B. Tipton; M. Utsuro; A. R. Young; J. Yuan

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.89.272501

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Measurements of ultracold neutron lifetimes in solid deuterium

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Abstract

We present the first measurements of the survival time of ultracold neutrons (UCNs) in solid deuterium SD2. This critical parameter provides a fundamental limitation to the effectiveness of superthermal UCN sources that utilize solid ortho-deuterium as the source material. Superthermal UCN sources offer orders of magnitude improvement in the available densities of UCNs, and are of great importance to fundamental particle-physics experiments such as searches for a static electric dipole moment and lifetime measurements of the free neutron. These measurements are performed utilizing a SD2 source coupled to a spallation source of neutrons, providing a demonstration of UCN production in this geometry and permitting systematic studies of the influence of thermal up-scatter and contamination with para-deuterium on the UCN survival time.

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C. L. Morris, J. M. Anaya, T. J. Bowles, B. W. Filippone, P. Geltenbort, R. E. Hill, M. Hino, S. Hoedl, G. E. Hogan, T. M. Ito, T. Kawai, K. Kirch, S. K. Lamoreaux, C. -Y. Liu, M. Makela, L. J. Marek, J. W. Martin, R. N. Mortensen, A. Pichlmaier, A. Saunders, S. J. Seestrom, D. Smith, W. Teasdale, B. Tipton, M. Utsuro, A. R. Young, J. Yuan. 2001-09-28. Measurements of ultracold neutron lifetimes in solid deuterium. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.89.272501

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