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Status of the UCNProBe experiment

ORAL

Abstract

The free neutron lifetime is an active subject of interest due to differences in the observed lifetime between cold neutron beam experiments and trapped ultra-cold neutron (UCN) measurements. This difference is currently around the four sigma level. The UCNProBe experiment at Los Alamos will perform a beam experiment using UCNs by trapping the neutrons within a storage volume of deuterated scintillator and counting both the number of UCNs within the trap and number of decay electrons to within 0.1 percent precision. The experiment will be conducted in two iterations. The first will use a boron-coated dagger to count the UCNs, while the later version will use helium-3 gas instead. In this talk, we will present the design studies of the boron-coated dagger and discuss potential systematics and detection efficiencies for both iterations of the experiment.

Presenters

  • Nicholas Floyd

    Los Alamos National Laboratory

Authors

  • Nicholas Floyd

    Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • Martin Krivos

    Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • Zhaowen Tang

    Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • Christopher L Morris

    Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos Natl Lab