Speaker
Description
The TUCAN collaboration is building a world-leading ultracold neutron (UCN) source at TRIUMF (Canada Particle Accelerator Center) to conduct a measurement of the neutron’s electric dipole moment (nEDM) with a sensitivity of 10^(-27) ecm. If discovered, it would be a new source of CP violation and contribute to our understanding of the Baryon Asymmetry of the universe as well as theories beyond the Standard Model of Physics.
The UCN source is now being commissioned, which is capable of production rates up to 10^7 UCN/s. Here spallation neutrons are cooled in room temperature heavy water and 20 K liquid deuterium, followed by UCN production in a spherical volume of superfluid liquid helium He-II at 1 K. UCN are extracted from the production volume to the nEDM apparatus using several meters of coated vacuum guides.
In June of 2025 several milestones were achieved where UCN were produced for the first time with the new source, without the liquid deuterium moderator. At a proton irradiation current of 36 uA and 60 sec, ~900k UCN were detected at the exit of the source in 120 sec. This presentation will discuss the recent UCN production and the status and plans of the TUCAN nEDM experiment.
