Neutron decay correlations in the Nab experiment

Tuesday 6 Dec 2016, 08:00 → 18:00 UTC

TUM Institute for Advanced Study

Seminar on Neutron decay correlations in the Nab experiment

By Leah Broussard, ORNL, USA

The Nab experiment will measure the correlation a between the momenta of the beta particle and antineutrino as well as the Fierz term b which distorts the beta spectrum. The a correlation can be used to extract the quark mixing matrix element Vud, which is used to precisely test our understanding of the electroweak interaction. A nonzero Fierz term would signal the presence of scalar and tensor currents which must come from new physics Beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Nab uses an asymmetric spectrometer to determine the proton time of flight and the beta energy in order to reconstruct the antineutrino direction. The charged particles are detected using thick, large area, segmented silicon detectors, which must be biased to -30 kV to detect the very low energy protons. The measurement principles and status of the experiment and detection system will be presented.

 

 

 

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