At Least Three Experimental Challenges in Current Beta Decay Research

General ILL Seminar organised by College III
Monday, 4 June 2018 at 03:00 p.m
Seminar room 7/8, ILL 1

Albert Young
North Carolina State University and the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory

Recent progress on the experimental determination of neutron decay observables has moved the field to a very interesting point, where the next generation of experiments should probe angular correlations and lifetimes at the precision level required to establish neutron decay as the reference system for the charged weak current.  The experiments, not only lead to high precision values for the standard model couplings, but also lead to constraints to extensions to the particle physics standard model ("Beyond Standard Model", or BSM physics).  To achieve this goal, we need the lifetime at roughly the 0.04% level and an angular correlation at roughly the 0.1% level, to be directly competetive with the superallowed decays.
There are a number of ongoing experimental programs in development to meet this challenge, however their are some (familiar) challenges to the measurement of the lifetime, angular correlations and spectra at the required precision level.  In this very informal seminar, I review the experimental approach and status of UCNtau and UCNA, identifying some of the challenges for the next step in precision.  I also discuss how one might move forward, with experiments like Nab and cyclotron resonance emission spectroscopy, to produce high precision measurements of spectroscopy which can place stringent limits on BSM physics scenarios.

Tobias Jenke
(College III Secretary)

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