Related papers: Determination of the Free Neutron Lifetime
Free neutrons have a measured lifetime of 880 s, but disagreement between existing laboratory measurements of ~10 s have persisted over many years. This uncertainty has implications for multiple physics disciplines, including standard-model…
The neutron lifetime is important in understanding the production of light nuclei in the first minutes after the big bang and it provides basic information on the charged weak current of the standard model of particle physics. Two different…
The precise value of the neutron lifetime is of fundamental importance to particle physics and cosmology. The neutron lifetime recently obtained, 878.5 +/- 0.7stat +/- 0.3sys s, is the most accurate one to date. The new result for the…
We explore the effect of neutron lifetime and its uncertainty on standard big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). BBN describes the cosmic production of the light nuclides $^1{\rm H}$, ${\rm D}$, $^3{\rm H}$+$^3{\rm He}$, $^4{\rm He}$, and $^7{\rm…
We establish the feasibility of measuring the neutron lifetime via an alternative, space-based class of methods, which use neutrons generated by galactic cosmic ray spallation of planets' surfaces and atmospheres. Free neutrons decay via…
We use data from the Lunar Prospector Neutron Spectrometer to make the second space-based measurement of the free neutron lifetime finding $\tau_n=887 \pm 14_\text{stat}{\:^{+7}_{-3\:\text{syst}}}$ s, which is within 1$\sigma$ of the…
The past two decades have yielded several new measurements and reanalysis of older measurements of the neutron lifetime. These have led to a 4.4 standard deviation discrepancy between the most precise measurements of the neutron decay rate…
The analysis of experiments on measuring neutron lifetime has been made. The latest most accurate result of measuring neutron lifetime [Phys. Lett. B 605, 72 (2005)] 878.5 \pm 0.8 s differs from the world average value [Phys. Lett. B 667, 1…
In this paper we review the role of the neutron lifetime and discuss the present status of measurements. In view of the large discrepancy observed by the two most precise individual measurements so far we describe the different techniques…
The lifetime of free neutrons measured in the lab has a long standing disparity of $\sim$9~s. A space-based technique has recently been proposed to independently measure the neutron lifetime using interactions between the galactic cosmic…
We revisit the neutron lifetime puzzle, a discrepancy between beam and bottle measurements of the weak neutron decay. Since both types of measurements are realized at different times after the nuclear production of free neutrons, we argue…
The neutron lifetime is determined for now most accurately by two methods --the so-called "beam method" and the method of neutron storage in a trap. The goal of this research is to obtain the neutron lifetime with a higher precision by…
Current precision big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) studies motivate us to revisit the neutron lifespan in the plasma medium of the early universe. The mechanism we explore is the Fermi-blocking of decay electrons and neutrinos by plasma. As…
Precision measurements of the free neutron lifetime $\tau_n$, when combined with measurements of the axial vector form factor, can be used to test unitarity of the CKM matrix. Non-unitarity is a signal for physics Beyond the Standard Model…
The puzzle remains in the large discrepancy between neutron lifetime measured by the two distinct experimental approaches -- counts of beta decays in a neutron beam and storage of ultracold neutrons in a potential trap, namely, the beam…
The most precise determination of the neutron lifetime using the beam method was completed in 2005 and reported a result of $\tau_n = (886.3 \pm 1.2 [\textrm{stat}] \pm 3.2 [\textrm{syst}])$ s. The dominant uncertainties were attributed to…
The ``neutron lifetime puzzle'' arises from the discrepancy between neutron lifetime measurements obtained using the beam method, which measures decay products, and the bottle method, which measures the disappearance of neutrons. To resolve…
We report a new measurement of the neutron decay lifetime by the absolute counting of in-beam neutrons and their decay protons. Protons were confined in a quasi-Penning trap and counted with a silicon detector. The neutron beam fluence was…
We summarize our recent proposal of explaining the discrepancy between the bottle and beam measurements of the neutron lifetime through the existence of a dark sector, which the neutron can decay to with a branching fraction 1%. We show…
Neutron lifetime is one of the most important physical constants which determines parameters of the weak interaction and predictions of primordial nucleosynthesis theory. There remains the unsolved problem of a 3.9{\sigma} discrepancy…