Progress toward a new beam measurement of the neutron lifetime

18 Oct 2016, 09:30
20m
Oral Fundamental physics and precision experiments with muons, pions, neutrons, antiprotons, and other particles Tu - 1

Speaker

Dr Maynard Dewey (NIST)

Description

Neutron beta decay is the simplest example of nuclear beta decay. A precise value of the neutron lifetime is important for consistency tests of the Standard Model and Big Bang nucleosysnthesis models. There is currently a disagreement between measurements of the neutron lifetime made using the cold neutron beam method and ultracold neutron storage methods. A new measurement of the neutron lifetime using the beam method will be performed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research. The projected uncertainty of this new measurement is 1 s. An overview of the measurement and the technical improvements will be discussed.

Primary author

Dr Maynard Dewey (NIST)

Presentation materials