[Triumf-seminars] TRIUMF Seminar today at 14:00

[TRIUMF Seminars]

Date/Time: Tue 2012-05-01 at 14:00

Location:  Auditorium          

Speaker:   Tim Chupp (University of Michigan)

Title:     Fundamental Symmetries and the Neutron

Abstract: Fundamental neutron physics impacts physics at many scales from the origin of the elements produced in the early universe to the structure of the Standard Model and possible extensions. In particular neutron decay is studied in both beams and bottles or ultra-cold neutrons. The neutron lifetime, about 880 seconds, determines the abundance of the light elements as well as the fundamental strength of the limiting rate in the solar energy cycle. Recent measurements using stored ultra-cold neutrons are discordant at a level many times larger than the uncertainties reported by the experimenters. Measurements with neutron beams have larger reported errors, but provide a completely different technique with different systematics errors. We plan a new measurement with reduced uncertainties that aims to resolve the current discrepancies. Observing the angular correlations of the emitted particles with respect to each other or with respect to the neutron spin provides a set of measurements that can over constrain the Standard Model parameters and thus probe new physics. Additionally, spin provides access to new parameters that violate time-reversal or CP symmetry and thus may complement the neutron electric dipole moment measurements in probing interactions that may explain baryogenesis, the origin of the dominance of matter over antimatter in the universe.

Stimulants available 15 minutes before the talk.

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