We present the result of an experiment to measure the electric dipole moment (EDM) of the neutron at the Paul Scherrer Institute using Ramsey's method of separated oscillating magnetic fields with ...ultracold neutrons. Our measurement stands in the long history of EDM experiments probing physics violating time-reversal invariance. The salient features of this experiment were the use of a ^{199}Hg comagnetometer and an array of optically pumped cesium vapor magnetometers to cancel and correct for magnetic-field changes. The statistical analysis was performed on blinded datasets by two separate groups, while the estimation of systematic effects profited from an unprecedented knowledge of the magnetic field. The measured value of the neutron EDM is d_{n}=(0.0±1.1_{stat}±0.2_{sys})×10^{-26} e.cm.
We present a magnetometer based on optically pumped Cs atoms that measures the magnitude and direction of a 1 μT magnetic field. Multiple circularly polarized laser beams were used to probe the free ...spin precession of the Cs atoms. The design was optimized for long-time stability and achieves a scalar resolution better than 300 fT for integration times ranging from 80 ms to 1000 s. The best scalar resolution of less than 80 fT was reached with integration times of 1.6 to 6 s. We were able to measure the magnetic field direction with a resolution better than 10 μrad for integration times from 10 s up to 2000 s.
We report a new limit on a possible short range spin-dependent interaction from the precise measurement of the ratio of Larmor precession frequencies of stored ultracold neutrons and Hg199 atoms ...confined in the same volume. The measurement was performed in a ∼1μT vertical magnetic holding field with the apparatus searching for a permanent electric dipole moment of the neutron at the Paul Scherrer Institute. A possible coupling between freely precessing polarized neutron spins and unpolarized nucleons of the wall material can be investigated by searching for a tiny change of the precession frequencies of neutron and mercury spins. Such a frequency change can be interpreted as a consequence of a short range spin-dependent interaction that could possibly be mediated by axions or axion-like particles. The interaction strength is proportional to the CP violating product of scalar and pseudoscalar coupling constants gSgP. Our result confirms limits from complementary experiments with spin-polarized nuclei in a model-independent way. Limits from other neutron experiments are improved by up to two orders of magnitude in the interaction range of 10−6<λ<10−4m.
We describe a spin-echo method for ultracold neutrons (UCNs) confined in a precession chamber and exposed to a |B0|=1 μT magnetic field. We have demonstrated that the analysis of UCN spin-echo ...resonance signals in combination with knowledge of the ambient magnetic field provides an excellent method by which to reconstruct the energy spectrum of a confined ensemble of neutrons. The method takes advantage of the relative dephasing of spins arising from a gravitationally induced striation of stored UCNs of different energies, and also permits an improved determination of the vertical magnetic-field gradient with an exceptional accuracy of 1.1 pT/cm. This novel combination of a well-known nuclear resonance method and gravitationally induced vertical striation is unique in the realm of nuclear and particle physics and should prove to be invaluable for the assessment of systematic effects in precision experiments such as searches for an electric dipole moment of the neutron or the measurement of the neutron lifetime.
The neutron gyromagnetic ratio has been measured relative to that of the 199Hg atom with an uncertainty of 0.8 ppm. We employed an apparatus where ultracold neutrons and mercury atoms are stored in ...the same volume and report the result γn/γHg=3.8424574(30).
An analytic solution to the magnetostatic inverse problem in the framework of vector spherical harmonic basis functions is presented. This formalism is used for the design of a spherical magnetic ...field compensation system and its performance is compared with an already existing rectangular coil system. The proposed set of spherical coils with 15 degrees of freedom achieves a shielding factor of 1000 or better in a large part of the volume enclosed by the coils for a dipolar type external perturbation.
We report on a laser based 199Hg co-magnetometer deployed in an experiment searching for a permanent electric dipole moment of the neutron. We demonstrate a more than five times increased signal ...to-noise-ratio in a direct comparison measurement with its 204Hg discharge bulb-based predecessor. An improved data model for the extraction of important system parameters such as the degrees of absorption and polarization is derived. Laser- and lamp-based data-sets can be consistently described by the improved model which permits to compare measurements using the two different light sources and to explain the increase in magnetometer performance. The laser-based magnetometer satisfies the magnetic field sensitivity requirements for the next generation nEDM experiments.
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We report on the design and first tests of a device allowing for measurement of ultracold neutrons polarisation by means of the simultaneous analysis of the two spin components. The device was ...developed in the framework of the neutron electric dipole moment experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute. Individual parts and the entire newly built system have been characterised with ultracold neutrons. The gain in statistical sensitivity obtained with the simultaneous spin analyser is
% relative to the former sequential analyser under nominal running conditions.
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