Analysis of the efficacy of Magnetic Coils for Neutron Electric Dipole Moment Experiment​

Measurement of the neutron electric dipole moment (nEDM), is one of the top priorities in nuclear and particle physics because of its discovery potential for new physics. An electric dipole moment is the separation of charge inside of an elementary particle, atom, or molecule. The standard model predicts neutrons to have a dipole moment in the range of 10−32 – 10−31e·cm. This is an extremely small charge separation. Nevertheless, this fundamental property is associated with time reversal asymmetry. If a nonzero EDM was measured, it could explain the lack of antimatter remnants of the Big Bang. (It is believed that, in the early universe, most of this antimatter was converted into matter in a time-asymmetric process.) We constructed magnetic coils for an experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland that seeks to measure the neutron electric dipole moment with significantly greater sensitivity than previous experiments. Our objective is to analyze the fields produced by these coils to determine their efficacy of this measurement.​