Erlangen 2026 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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HK: Fachverband Physik der Hadronen und Kerne
HK 45: Instrumentation IX
HK 45.3: Vortrag
Donnerstag, 19. März 2026, 16:45–17:00, PHIL B 302
Normalization detectors for the neutron lifetime experiment tauSPECT — •Viktoria Ermuth1, Martin Fertl1, and Dieter Ries2 for the tauSPECT collaboration — 1Institute of Physics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz, Germany — 2Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen PSI, Switzerland
The τSPECT experiment measures the free neutron lifetime by confining ultracold neutrons (UCN) with magnetic field gradients and counting the remaining neutrons after varying storage times. There are statistical and systematic changes over time in the yield and energy of the neutrons produced by the pulsed UCN source that can lead to systematic uncertainties. Therefore, the amount of UCNs filled into the trap during each filling cycle has to be monitored. A neutron detector has been built and installed in the experiment beamline to monitor the flux of UCNs during the filling process. The charged particles resulting from the neutron capture reaction 10B (n,α)7Li cause scintillation in a 10B-coated ZnS:Ag layer. This light is detected by silicon photomultipliers coupled in coincidence to the scintillator. A second version suited for a larger beamline diameter and with some design improvements is currently under development. Since the two detectors will be at different heights on the UCN path, this will also give an insight into the UCN energy spectrum.
This talk will show the detector*s design, results of measurements, as well as the progress for the improved version.