The PSI ultra-cold neutron source

Anghel, A.; Atchison, F.; Blau, B.; Brandt, B. van den; Daum, M.; Doelling, R.; Dubs, M.; Duperrex, P.A.; Fuchs, A.M.; George, David C.; Gültl, L.; Hautle, P.; Heidenreich, G.; Heinrich, F.; Henneck, R.; Heule, S.; Hofmann, Thilo; Joray, St.; Kasprzak, M.; Kirch, K.; Knecht, A.; Konter, J.A.; Korhonen, T.; Kuźniak, M.; Lauss, B.; Mezger, A.; Mtchedlishvili, A.; Petzoldt, G.; Pichlmaier, A.; Reggiani, D.; Reiser, Robert P.; Rohrer, U.; Seidel, Mike; Spitzer, H.; Thomsen, K.; Wagner, W.; Wohlmuther, M.; Zsigmond, G.; Zuellig, J.; Bodek, K.; Kistryn, S.; Zejma, J.; Geltenbort, P.; Plonka, C.; Grigoriev, S.A.

doi:10.1016/j.nima.2009.07.077

Cited by 65 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The operating UCN sources under investigation were one out of four beamlines (the so-called EDM beamline) at PF2 (ILL) [4], Grenoble, France, at the TRIGA reactor of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany [53,60,61], at the Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland [55,[62][63][64], and the new superfluid helium SUN-2 UCN source at ILL. 2 In January 2015 comparison measurements at the solid deuterium based UCN source of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, USA, were performed [70], but due to the atypical performance of the UCN source at that time in comparison to the one given in Refs. [52,71,72] the LANL UCN collaboration did not wish to include the results in this paper.…”

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confidence: 99%

Comparison of ultracold neutron sources for fundamental physics measurements

et al. 2017

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Ultracold neutrons (UCNs) are key for precision studies of fundamental parameters of the neutron and in searches for new CP violating processes or exotic interactions beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. The most prominent example is the search for a permanent electric dipole moment of the neutron (nEDM). We have performed an experimental comparison of the leading UCN sources currently operating. We have used a 'standard' UCN storage bottle with a volume of 32 liters, comparable in size to nEDM experiments, which allows us to compare the UCN density available at a given beam port.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of ultracold neutron sources for fundamental physics measurements

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“…[21][22][23] New UCN sources, using superthermal production 1 with either superfluid helium or solid deuterium as a converter material, are being built at several facilities. [24][25][26][27][28] Recently, a very encouraging result has been published by Masuda for a prototype source based on production in superfluid helium. 29 The lifetimes of UCN in solid ortho-deuterium are limited by the neutron's decay time, nuclear absorption of UCNs on the deuterium, nuclear absorption on contaminating hydrogen, thermal upscattering from the deuterium, 013304-2 Saunders et al Rev.…”

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confidence: 99%

Performance of the Los Alamos National Laboratory spallation-driven solid-deuterium ultra-cold neutron source

Saunders

Makela

Bagdasarova

et al. 2013

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A.; Makela, M.; Bagdasarova, Y.; et al., "Performance of the Los Alamos National Laboratory spallation-driven solid-deuterium ultra-cold neutron source," Rev. Sci. Instrum. 84, 013304 (2013); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4770063 REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS 84, 013304 (2013) Performance of the Los Alamos National Laboratory spallation-driven solid-deuterium ultra-cold neutron source In this paper, we describe the performance of the Los Alamos spallation-driven solid-deuterium ultracold neutron (UCN) source. Measurements of the cold neutron flux, the very low energy neutron production rate, and the UCN rates and density at the exit from the biological shield are presented and compared to Monte Carlo predictions. The cold neutron rates compare well with predictions from the Monte Carlo code MCNPX and the UCN rates agree with our custom UCN Monte Carlo code. The source is shown to perform as modeled. The maximum delivered UCN density at the exit from the biological shield is 52(9) UCN/cc with a solid deuterium volume of ∼1500 cm 3 .

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“…(1) The total number of neutrons, which is permanently increased by improving the intensity of the present source of ultracold neutrons (UCN) 1 at PSI [15][16][17][18][19]. This source is based on a very cold moderator-converter using solid deuterium (sD 2 ) [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] at a temperature around 5 K. (4) The initial polarization of the neutrons, which is increased to ∼100% by means of a superconductive solenoid with a field of 5 T [34].…”

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Losses and depolarization of ultracold neutrons on neutron guide and storage materials

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At Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) and Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), we have measured the losses and depolarization probabilities of ultracold neutrons on various materials: (i) nickel-molybdenum alloys with weight percentages of 82/18, 85/15, 88/12, 91/9, and 94/6 and natural nickel Ni100, (ii) nickel-vanadium NiV93/7, (iii) copper, and (iv) deuterated polystyrene (dPS). For the different samples, storage-time constants up to ∼460 s were obtained at room temperature. The corresponding loss parameters for ultracold neutrons, η, varied between 1.0 × 10 −4 and 2.2 × 10 −4 . All η values are in agreement with theory except for dPS, where anomalous losses at room temperature were established with four standard deviations. The depolarization probabilities per wall collision β measured with unprecedented sensitivity varied between 0.7 × 10 −6 and 9.0 × 10 −6 . Our depolarization result for copper differs from other experiments by 4.4 and 15.8 standard deviations. The β values of the paramagnetic NiMo alloys over molybdenum content show an increase of β with increasing Mo content. This is in disagreement with expectations from literature. Finally, ferromagnetic behavior of NiMo alloys at room temperature was found for molybdenum contents of 6.5 at.% or less and paramagnetic behavior for more than 8.7 at.%. This may contribute to solving an ambiguity in literature.

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The PSI ultra-cold neutron source

Cited by 65 publications

References 23 publications

Comparison of ultracold neutron sources for fundamental physics measurements

Comparison of ultracold neutron sources for fundamental physics measurements

Performance of the Los Alamos National Laboratory spallation-driven solid-deuterium ultra-cold neutron source

Losses and depolarization of ultracold neutrons on neutron guide and storage materials

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