RESUMEN
We describe an apparatus used to measure the electron-antineutrino angular correlation coefficient in free neutron decay. The apparatus employs a novel measurement technique in which the angular correlation is converted into a proton time-of-flight asymmetry that is counted directly, avoiding the need for proton spectroscopy. Details of the method, apparatus, detectors, data acquisition, and data reduction scheme are presented, along with a discussion of the important systematic effects.
RESUMEN
Backscatter of electrons from a beta spectrometer, with incomplete energy deposition, can lead to undesirable effects in many types of experiments. We present and discuss the design and operation of a backscatter-suppressed beta spectrometer that was developed as part of a program to measure the electronantineutrino correlation coefficient in neutron beta decay (aCORN). An array of backscatter veto detectors surrounds a plastic scintillator beta energy detector. The spectrometer contains an axial magnetic field gradient, so electrons are efficiently admitted but have a low probability for escaping back through the entrance after backscattering. The design, construction, calibration, and performance of the spectrometer are discussed.
RESUMEN
We report the first result for the electron-antineutrino angular correlation (a coefficient) in free neutron ß decay from the aCORN experiment. aCORN uses a novel method in which the a coefficient is proportional to an asymmetry in proton time of flight for events where the ß electron and recoil proton are detected in delayed coincidence. Data are presented from a 15 month run at the NIST Center for Neutron Research. We obtained a=-0.1090±0.0030(stat)±0.0028(sys), the most precise measurement of the neutron a coefficient reported to date.
RESUMEN
The Chao matrix formalism allows analytic calculations of a beam's polarization behavior inside a spin resonance. We recently tested its prediction of polarization oscillations occurring in a stored beam of polarized particles near a spin resonance. Using a 1.85 GeV/c polarized deuteron beam stored in the COoler SYnchrotron, we swept a new rf solenoid's frequency rather rapidly through 400 Hz during 100 ms, while varying the distance between the sweep's end frequency and the central frequency of an rf-induced spin resonance. Our measurements of the deuteron's polarization near and inside the resonance agree with the Chao formalism's predicted oscillations.
RESUMEN
We describe a double-scattering experiment with a novel tagged neutron beam to measure differential cross sections for np backscattering to better than +/-2% absolute precision. The measurement focuses on angles and energies where the cross section magnitude and angle dependence constrain the charged pion-nucleon coupling constant, but existing data show serious discrepancies among themselves and with energy-dependent partial-wave analyses. The present results are in good accord with the partial-wave analyses, but deviate systematically from other recent measurements.
RESUMEN
A new highly sensitive method of looking for electric dipole moments of charged particles in storage rings is described. The major systematic errors inherent in the method are addressed and ways to minimize them are suggested. It seems possible to measure the muon EDM to levels that test speculative theories beyond the standard model.
RESUMEN
The time dependence of the vector and tensor polarization of a 270 MeV stored deuteron beam was measured near a depolarizing resonance, which was induced by an oscillating, longitudinal magnetic field. The distance to the resonance was varied by changing the oscillation frequency. The measured ratio of the polarization lifetimes is tau(vector)/tau(tensor)=1.9+/-0.2. Assuming that the effect of the resonance is to induce transitions between magnetic substates m(I), we find that the transition rate between neighboring states (+1 and 0 or -1 and 0) is four times higher than between the states with m(I)=+1 and -1.
RESUMEN
We recently studied spin flipping of a 270 MeV vertically polarized deuteron beam stored in the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility Cooler Ring. We adiabatically swept an rf solenoid's frequency through an rf-induced spin resonance and observed its effect on the deuterons' vector and tensor polarizations. After optimizing the resonance crossing rate and maximizing the solenoid's voltage, we measured a vector spin-flip efficiency of 94.2%+/-0.3%. We also found striking behavior of the spin-1 tensor polarization.
RESUMEN
We report the first observation of the charge symmetry breaking d+d-->4He+pi(0) reaction near threshold. Measurements using a magnetic channel (gated by two photons) of the 4He scattering angle and momentum (from time of flight) permitted reconstruction of the pi(0) "missing mass," the quantity used to separate 4He+pi(0) events from the continuum of double radiative capture 4He+gamma+gamma events. We measured total cross sections for neutral pion production of 12.7+/-2.2 pb at 228.5 MeV and 15.1+/-3.1 pb at 231.8 MeV. The uncertainty is dominated by statistical errors. These cross sections arise fundamentally from the down-up quark mass difference and quark electromagnetic effects that contribute in part through meson mixing (e.g., pi(0)-eta) mechanisms.
RESUMEN
We recently studied the spin-flipping efficiency of an rf-dipole magnet using a 120-MeV horizontally polarized proton beam stored in the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility Cooler Ring, which contained a nearly full Siberian snake. We flipped the spin by ramping the rf dipole's frequency through an rf-induced depolarizing resonance. By adiabatically turning on the rf dipole, we minimized the beam loss. After optimizing the frequency ramp parameters, we used 100 multiple spin flips to measure a spin-flip efficiency of 99.63+/-0.05%. This result indicates that spin flipping should be possible in very-high-energy polarized storage rings, where Siberian snakes are certainly needed and only dipole rf-flipper magnets are practical.
RESUMEN
The age of a sample of carbon dioxide has been determined by accelerating the carbon with a cyclotron and detecting the carbon-14 ions in the beam. Nitrogen-14 was eliminated as a background through the use of a range-separation technique. To avoid all possibility of experimenter bias, the measurement was conducted in a blind fashion.
RESUMEN
Quarks of charge +1 and other anomalous hydrogen have been sought by using the 88-inch cyclotron at Berkeley as a high-energy mass spectrometer, with natural hydrogen and deuterium as the sources of ions. No quarks were observed, and limits were placed on their ratio to protons on the earth that vary from < 2 x 10(-19)for high masses (3 to 8.2 atomic mass units) to 10(-13) for the lowest masses (< (1/3) atomic mass unit).