Neutron Lifetime Puzzle

Session

Systematic Effects, Physics beyond the Standard Model

13 Sept 2025, 13:30

WHGA/001 - Auditorium (PSI)

Conveners

Systematic Effects, Physics beyond the Standard Model

• Wolfgang Schreyer (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

10. The Bound Beta Decay of the Free Neutron - A Possible Solution to the Neutron Lifetime Puzzle

Gutsmiedl Erwin (Technische Universität München)

13/09/2025, 13:30

oral

The Bound Beta Decay of the Free Neutron - A Possible Solution to the Neutron Lifetime Puzzle

Erwin Gutsmiedl

Technische Universität München, Physik Department, James-Franck-Str.1,
D-85748 Garching, Germany

The discrepancy in neutron lifetime measurements between storage experiments with ultracold neutrons and beam experiments with cold neutrons has persisted as a significant...

11. How Small Heating of Ultracold Neutrons could be related to the Neutron Lifetime Puzzle

Felix Hummel (TU Wien)

13/09/2025, 13:50

oral

After cooling and trapping, Ultracold Neutrons (UCNs) reacquire kinetic energy over a relatively long period of time. This process is called Small Heating and it is not yet fully understood. Most intriguingly, this process wears off to some extent.

In 2024 we have proposed a dressed quark model that could explain the Neutron Lifetime Puzzle (NLP). The neutrons in the beam could be in so-far...

7. Experimental limits on an excited neutron state as an explanation of the beam-bottle neutron lifetime discrepancy.

Christopher Morris (LANL)

13/09/2025, 14:10

invited

Koch and Hummel[1] suggest a new solution to the neutron lifetime enigma[2]. The neutron lifetime enigma arises from the 4.4 standard deviation difference between the lifetime measured for bottled neutrons[3] and measurements of lifetime from a beam of cold neutrons[4]. Koch and Hummel point out the beam experiments measure the decay rate of neutrons very close in time to their source whereas...