Karlsruhe 2011 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik
T 31: Elektroschwache Wechselwirkung I
T 31.9: Gruppenbericht
Dienstag, 29. März 2011, 18:45–19:05, 30.35: 040
Current status of the neutron lifetime experiment PENeLOPE — •Rüdiger Picker1, Erwin Gutsmiedl1, Joachim Hartmann1, Stefan Materne1, Dieter Renker1, Stefan Ritt2, Thorsten Schäfer1, Wolfgang Schreyer1, Andreas Senft1, Rainer Stoepler1, Christian Tietze1, and Stephan Paul1 — 1Technische Universität München, Physik Department — 2Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland
The neutron lifetime τn allows access to fundamental parameters of the weak interaction. Therefore, a precise knowledge of τn provides direct tests of the Standard Model of particle physics. Moreover, the neutron lifetime is important for astrophysical models. However, recent results disagree with the PDG value of 885.7±0.8 s by roughly 6 σ. To resolve this discrepancy, we are building up an experiment with a trap for ultracold neutrons (UCN) at Technische Universität München.
The UCN will be trapped in a multipole field produced by superconducting solenoids with a flux density of up to 2T. They are additionally confined vertically by gravitation. This makes extraction and detection of the decay particles possible and allows a direct measurement of the neutron decay rate. The envisaged precision of Δ τn < 0.1 s demands very long storage lifetimes and a good handle on systematic effects.
The talk will report on the measurement principle and the current progress of the setup.
Supported by Maier-Leibnitz-Laboratorium, Garching, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the excellence cluster "Origin and Structure of the Universe".