Seminar room 101, ILL 50
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“ Shedding Light on Neutron Lifetime Puzzle via the New Unexpected Result of the Two-Body Decay of Neutrons ”
Eugene OKS
Physics Department, 380 Duncan Drive, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA
The discrepancy between the average measured lifetime of trapped ultracold neutrons τtrap = (877.75 ± 0.28stat + 0.22/-0.16syst) s, this being the latest value from Gonzalez et al (2021), and the average beam measured lifetime of neutrons (τbeam = 888.0 ± 2.0 s) remains unresolved up to now. In 1990 Green and Thomson brought up the two-body decay of neutrons (the decay into a hydrogen atom and antineutrino) into consideration. However, the Branching Ratio (BR) for this process, known at that time, was 4x10-6, thus lacking over 3 orders of magnitude for the quantitative explanation of the neutron lifetime puzzle. In the present paper we bring to the attention of the research community that with the allowance for the second solution of Dirac equation for hydrogen atoms (whose existence is evidenced by four different types of atomic/molecular experiments and by astrophysical observations), the theoretical BR is increased by a factor of 3300: the theoretical BR becomes (1.3 ± 0.3)%. This is in the excellent agreement with “experimental” BR = (1.15 ± 0.27)% required for reconciling the above τtrap and τbeam. Thus, it seems that the above two-body decay of neutrons in the beam experiments (that count only the protons) solves the neutron lifetime puzzle completely. I will propose the design of the experiment that will constitute both the first experimental detection of the 2-body decay of neutrons and the experimental confirmation that the 2-body decay of neutrons produces overwhelmingly the SFHA. I also show that the two-body decay of neutrons has profound cosmological implications. Namely, it is the mechanism by which neutron stars are slowly but continuously producing baryonic dark matter – in the form of hydrogen atoms, corresponding to the second solution of Dirac equation (the atoms having only the s-states, so that due to the selection rules they practically do not couple to the electromagnetic radiation) – and this process goes on at the present time as well.
Hanno FILTER (College 3 Secretary)
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