2014/12/10 by D. A. Tatarskiy, A. V. Petrenko, Tatarskiy, D. A. +9
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #FOS: Physical sciences #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Nuclear Physics and Applications #Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other) #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.other
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1412.3222
openalex publication_date 2014/12/10 · arxiv created 2015/03/25 · arxiv updated 2015/03/26 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report on observation of the time reversal symmetry breaking in unpolarized neutrons scattering experiment. Neutron transmittivity through the system consisting of two magnetic mirrors placed in an external magnetic field is measured. Time reversal symmetry holds for coplanar magnetic configuration, meaning that transmitted intensity does not change when interchanging neutron source and detector. Contrarily, for noncoplanar magnetic configuration the time reversal symmetry breaks down. In this case the transmitted intensity changes when interchanging the source and detector. The observed time reversal symmetry breaking is the consequence of the one of the most fundamental properties of quantum mechanics, namely the non-commutativity of spin algebra.