aCORN: an experiment to measure the electron-antineutrino correlation coefficient in free neutron decay

Published

August 1, 2017

Author(s)

Maynard S. Dewey, Fred B. Bateman, Wangchun Chen, Thomas R. Gentile, Md. T. Hassan, Michael P. Mendenhall, Jeffrey S. Nico, Brian Collett, Jim Byrne, William Byron, Guillaume Darius, Christina DeAngelis, Gordon L. Jones, Alexander Komives, Alexander Laptev, George Noid, Hyeonseo Park, Ed Stephenson, I Stern, K Stockton, Bob Trull, Fred Wietfeldt, B G. Yerozolimsky

Abstract

We describe an apparatus used to measure the electron-neutrino angular correlation coefficient, a, 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 relevant systematic effects.

Citation

Review of Scientific Instruments

Volume

88

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

Fundamental Symmetries, Neutron Decay, Beta Decay, Angular Correlation

Citation

Dewey, M. , Bateman, F. , Chen, W. , Gentile, T. , Hassan, M. , Mendenhall, M. , Nico, J. , Collett, B. , Byrne, J. , Byron, W. , Darius, G. , DeAngelis, C. , Jones, G. , Komives, A. , Laptev, A. , Noid, G. , Park, H. , Stephenson, E. , Stern, I. , Stockton, K. , Trull, B. , Wietfeldt, F. and Yerozolimsky, B. (2017), aCORN: an experiment to measure the electron-antineutrino correlation coefficient in free neutron decay, Review of Scientific Instruments (Accessed October 9, 2025)