Probing the electric neutrality of the neutron

01.05.2010 - 31.12.2014
Forschungsförderungsprojekt

Very high precision can be achieved by neutron measurements, due to the fact that neutrons are electrically neutral. Therefore, hypothetical forces and interactions being many orders of magnitude smaller than the electromagnetic force can be searched for, or tiny effects that are otherwise masked can be measured. That the neutron is a particle having zero electric charge has been checked by beam-deflection experiments, where slow neutrons pass through a strong electric field perpendicular to the beam direction. The value of the electric charge of the neutron could be restricted to be smaller than 10^{-21} times the electric charge of the electron. We propose to test the electric neutrality of neutrons at small distances by a new technique using the spectroscopy of quantum states in the gravity potential above a vertical mirror for ultracold neutrons. The new technique is an application of Ramsey's method of separated oscillating fields to neutron's quantum states in the gravity potential of the earth. In the presence of an electric field, the energy of the quantum states changes due to an additional electrostatic potential if a neutron carries a nonvanishing charge. The energy shift differs from state to state due to the special properties of the wave function in a linear potential. The energy difference between two quantum states with and without applying an electric field is measured in the experiment. In the long run our new method has the potential to improve the current limit for the electric charge of the neutron by 2 orders of magnitude.

Personen

Projektleiter_in

Projektmitarbeiter_innen

Institut

Grant funds

  • FWF - Österr. Wissenschaftsfonds (National) Stand-Alone Project Austrian Science Fund (FWF)

Forschungsschwerpunkte

  • Quantum Metrology and Precision Measurements: 40%
  • Design and Engineering of Quantum Systems: 20%
  • Quantum many-body systems: 40%

Schlagwörter

DeutschEnglisch
elektrische Neutralität des Neutronselectric neutrality of the neutron
Ramsey Methode, separierte oszillierende magnetische FelderRamsey method, separated oscillating magnetic fields
Gravitationszustände von Neutronengravity states of neutrons
Quanten-Interferometriequantum interferometry
ultrakalte Neutronenultracold neutrons

Publikationen