RUS  ENG
Full version
JOURNALS // Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk // Archive

UFN, 2019 Volume 189, Number 6, Pages 635–641 (Mi ufn6289)

This article is cited in 14 papers

PHYSICS OF OUR DAYS

Disagreement between measurements of the neutron lifetime by the ultracold neutron storage method and the beam technique

A. P. Serebrov

National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute", Konstantinov Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute

Abstract: Recent measurements of the neutron lifetime performed using a gravitational trap of ultracold neutrons (UCNs) (Konstantinov Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Russia) and a magnetic UCN trap (LANL, USA) have confirmed PNPI's result of 2005. The results of experiments with stored UCNs agree with each other but differ from those of the beam experiment (NIST, USA) by ${3.5}\sigma $ (corresponding to 1% in the decay probability). This disagreement is currently being discussed in the literature as a ‘neutron anomaly’. We analyze possible reasons for that disagreement and test the experimental data for the neutron lifetime and beta-decay asymmetry within the Standard Model. The test is only passed for neutron lifetime values that are obtained using the UCN storage method.

PACS: 06.20.-f, 12.60.-i, 14.20.Dh

Received: April 13, 2018
Revised: November 2, 2018
Accepted: November 15, 2018

DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.2018.11.038475


 English version:
Physics–Uspekhi, 2019, 62:6, 596–601

Bibliographic databases:


© Steklov Math. Inst. of RAS, 2025