2003/10/10 by M. S. Dewey, D. M. Gilliam, David M. Gilliam +9 · 1 citation
Medicine · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Atomic physics #Beam (structure) #Detector #Neutron #Neutron cross section #Neutron detection #Neutron radiation #Neutron temperature #Nuclear physics #Optics #Physics #Proton #Radiation Detection and Scintillator Technologies #Radiation Therapy and Dosimetry #nucl-ex
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.91.152302
published as Phys.Rev.Lett.91:152302,2003 · 5 pages, 4 figures
openalex publication_date 2003/10/10 · arxiv created 2003/11/04 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We report a new measurement of the neutron decay lifetime by the absolute counting of in-beam neutrons and their decay protons. Protons were confined in a quasi-Penning trap and counted with a silicon detector. The neutron beam fluence was measured by capture in a thin 6LiF foil detector with known absolute efficiency. The combination of these simultaneous measurements gives the neutron lifetime: \ensuremathτn=(886.8\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi1.2[stat]\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi3.2[syst]) s. The systematic uncertainty is dominated by uncertainties in the mass of the 6LiF deposit and the 6Li(n,t) cross section. This is the most precise measurement of the neutron lifetime to date using an in-beam method.