This article is cited in 2 papers

FIELDS, PARTICLES, AND NUCLEI

Neutron lifetime and the background structure in a neutron magnetic trap

V. V. Vasilyev

Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (Russian Federation State Scientific Center), Moscow

Abstract: A new cycle of processing the 1985–1986 experimental data concerning the storage of neutrons in a magnetic gravitational trap was carried out. It was shown that the count rates determined for the background are multiples of the neutron decay constant. This is explained by the fact that the background in the experiment on the storage of ultracold neutrons was caused by the electron count from background neutrons penetrating through trap walls. Numerous measurements for a small and varying number of background neutrons in the trap make it possible to extract and use data for determining the mean neutron lifetime. This lifetime turns out to be $\tau _n = 900.01 \pm 0.15\,$s in a nonuniform magnetic field.

PACS: 14.20.Dh

Received: 24.11.2002
Revised: 06.02.2003

 English version: Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics Letters, 2003, 77:5, 207–211

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