2017/07/31 by R. W. Pattie Jr., R. W. Pattie, N. B. Callahan +51 · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Atomic physics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Magnetic trap #Neutron #Nuclear physics #Physics #Plasma #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Trap (plumbing) #Ultracold neutrons #hep-ex #nucl-ex #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/science.aan8895
9 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables
arxiv created 2018/02/07 · openalex publication_date 2018/05/07 · arxiv updated 2018/07/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
, plays an important role in nuclear and particle physics and cosmology. It is used to predict the ratio of protons to helium atoms in the primordial universe and to search for physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. We eliminated loss mechanisms present in previous trap experiments by levitating polarized ultracold neutrons above the surface of an asymmetric storage trap using a repulsive magnetic field gradient so that the stored neutrons do not interact with material trap walls. As a result of this approach and the use of an in situ neutron detector, the lifetime reported here [877.7 ± 0.7 (stat) +0.4/-0.2 (sys) seconds] does not require corrections larger than the quoted uncertainties.