14087435
Determination of the Free Neutron Lifetime
We present the status of current US experimental efforts to measure the lifetime of the free neutron by the "beam" and "bottle" methods. BBN nucleosynthesis models require accurate measurements with 1 second uncertainties, which are currently feasible. For tests of physics beyond the standard model, future efforts will need to achieve uncertainties well below 1 second. We outline paths achieve both.
5304169
A high dynamic range data acquisition system for a solid-state electron electric dipole moment experiment.
We have built a high precision (24-bit) data acquisition (DAQ) system capable of simultaneously sampling eight input channels for the measurement of the electric dipole moment of the electron. The DAQ system consists of two main components: a master board for DAQ control and eight individual analog-to-digital converter (ADC) boards for signal processing. This custom DAQ system provides galvanic isolation of the ADC boards from each other and the master board using fiber optic communication to reduce the possibility of ground loop pickup and attain ultimate low levels of channel cross-talk. In this paper, we describe the implementation of the DAQ system and scrutinize its performance.
118542460
Coherent Neutron Scattering in Polycrystalline Deuterium and its Implications for Ultracold Neutron Production
This paper presents a calculation of the neutron cross-sections in solid materials (used in practical neutron sources) with a large coherent scattering contribution. In particular, the dynamic structure function S(Q, !) of polycrystalline ortho-D2 is evaluated using a Monte-Carlo calculation that performs an average over scattering angles relative to crystal axes in random orientations. This method uses an analytical dispersion function with force constants derived from neutron scattering data of single crystal D2 in the framework of an axially symmetric force tensor. The resulting two dimensional map of S(Q, !) captures details of the phonon branches as well as the molecular rotations, that can be compared directly to data from inelastic neutron scattering on polycrystalline D2. This high resolution information is used to calculate the absolute cross-sections of production and upscattering loss of ultracold neutron (UCN). The resulting scattering cross-sections are significantly different, especially for UCN upscattering, from the previous predictions using the approach centered on the incoherent approximation.
119214299
Effect of an electric field on superfluid helium scintillation produced by $\alpha$-particle sources
We report a study of the intensity and time dependence of scintillation produced by weak alpha particle sources in superfluid helium in the presence of an electric field (0 - 45 kV/cm) in the temperature range of 0.2 K to 1.1 K at the saturated vapor pressure. Both the prompt and the delayed components of the scintillation exhibit a reduction in intensity with the application of an electric field. The reduction in the intensity of the prompt component is well approximated by a linear dependence on the electric field strength with a reduction of 15% at 45 kV/cm. When analyzed using the Kramers theory of columnar recombination, this electric field dependence leads to the conclusion that roughly 40% of the scintillation results from species formed from atoms originally promoted to excited states and 60% from excimers created by ionization and subsequent recombination with the charges initially having a cylindrical Gaussian distribution about the alpha track of 60 nm radius. The intensity of the delayed component of the scintillation has a stronger dependence on the electric field strength and on temperature. The implications of these data on the mechanisms affecting scintillation in liquid helium are discussed.
119507247
Storage of Ultracold Neutrons in the Magneto-Gravitational Trap of the UCN Experiment
The UCN experiment is designed to measure the lifetime n of the free neutron by trapping ultracold neutrons (UCN) in a magneto-gravitational trap. An asymmetric bowl-shaped NdFeB magnet Halbach array confines low-field-seeking UCN within the apparatus, and a set of electromagnetic coils in a toroidal geometry provides a background holding field to eliminate depolarization-induced UCN loss caused by magnetic field nodes. We present a measurement of the storage time store of the trap by storing UCN for various times and counting the survivors. The data are consistent with a single exponential decay, and we find store = 860 19 s, within 1 of current global averages for n. The storage time with the holding field deactivated is found to be store = 470 160 s; this decreased storage time is due to the loss of UCN, which undergo Majorana spin flips while being stored. We discuss plans to increase the statistical sensitivity of the measurement and investigate potential systematic effects.
5816062
Temperature-dependent neutron scattering cross-sections for polyethylene
Abstract This note presents neutron scattering cross-sections for polyethylene at 296, 77 and 4 K derived from a new scattering kernel for neutron scattering off of hydrogen in polyethylene. The kernel was developed in ENDF-6 format as a set of S ( α , β ) tables using the LEAPR module of the NJOY94 code package. The polyethylene density of states (from 0 to sub eV) adopted to derive the new kernel is presented. We compare our calculated room temperature total scattering cross-sections and double differential cross-sections at 232 meV at various angles with the available experimental data (at room temperature), and then extrapolate the calculations to lower temperatures (77 and 4 K). The new temperature-dependent scattering kernel gives a good quantitative fit to the available room temperature data and has a temperature dependence that is qualitatively consistent with thermodynamics.
119251998
On Supersymmetries
After reviewing electroweak (EW) scale supersymmetry (susy) and split susy, as well as their implications in very high energy cosmic rays, I present a high scale susy model for fermion masses. An O(0.1) nu_e-nu_{tau} mixing is expected.
197478005
Millisecond dips in the RXTE/PCA light curve of Sco X-1 and TNO occultation
54868722
EXPERIMENTAL PROGRESS OF DC-SC PHOTOINJECTOR AT PEKING UNIVERSITY*
Beam loading experiments on DC-SC photoinjector test facility have been finished at 4.4 K. Upon the present experiments, the gradient of 6 MV/m is achieved. The maximum energy gain is 1.1 MeV at 4.4 K. With average beam current of 270 mA, the measured rms emittance is about 5 mm-mrad at the beam energy of 500 keV. Experiments on the test facility has validated that the DC-SC photoinjector is a good choice to provide moderate average current electron beams with low bunch charge and very high repetition rate.
14586429
QCD sum rule analysis for the Lambda(b)->Lambda(c) semileptonic decay
Abstract The 1 m c and 1 m b corrections to the Λ b → Λ c semileptonic decay are analyzed by QCD sum rules. Within the framework of heavy quark effective theory, the subleading baryonic Isgur-Wise function of Λ b → Λ c has been calculated. It is shown that the corrections due to the 1 m Lagrangian insertion are negligibly small. The sizable 1 m Q effect to the decay lies only in the weak current. The decay spectrum and the branching ratio are given.
119145966
D0-brane realizations of the resolution of a reduced singular curve
Based on examples from superstring/D-brane theory since the work of Douglas and Moore on resolution of singularities of a superstring target-space $Y$ via a D-brane probe, the richness and the complexity of the stack of punctual D0-branes on a variety, and as a guiding question, we lay down a conjecture that any resolution $Y^{\prime}\rightarrow Y$ of a variety $Y$ over ${\Bbb C}$ can be factored through an embedding of $Y^{\prime}$ into the stack ${\frak M}^{0^{A z^f}_{\;p}}_r (Y)$ of punctual D0-branes of rank $r$ on $Y$ for $r\ge r_0$ in ${\Bbb N}$, where $r_0$ depends on the germ of singularities of $Y$. We prove that this conjecture holds for the resolution $\rho: C^{\prime}\rightarrow C$ of a reduced singular curve $C$ over ${\Bbb C}$. In string-theoretical language, this says that the resolution $C^{\prime}$ of a singular curve $C$ always arises from an appropriate D0-brane aggregation on $C$ and that the rank of the Chan-Paton module of the D0-branes involved can be chosen to be arbitrarily large.