First Ever Storage of Ultracold Neutrons in a Magnetic Trap Made of Permanent Magnets

V F Ezhov; A Z Andreev; A A Glushkov; A G Glushkov; M N Groshev; V A Knyazkov; G B Krygin; V L Ryabov; A P Serebrov; B A Bazarov; P Geltenbort; F J Hartman; S Paul; R Picker; O Zimmer; N A Kovrizhnykh

doi:10.6028/jres.110.051

First Ever Storage of Ultracold Neutrons in a Magnetic Trap Made of Permanent Magnets

J Res Natl Inst Stand Technol. 2005 Aug 1;110(4):345-50. doi: 10.6028/jres.110.051. Print 2005 Jul-Aug.

Authors

V F Ezhov¹, A Z Andreev¹, A A Glushkov¹, A G Glushkov¹, M N Groshev¹, V A Knyazkov¹, G B Krygin¹, V L Ryabov¹, A P Serebrov¹, B A Bazarov², P Geltenbort³, F J Hartman⁴, S Paul⁴, R Picker⁴, O Zimmer⁴, N A Kovrizhnykh⁵

Affiliations

¹ Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Gatchina, Russia.
² Research Center "Domen", S-Petersburg, Russia.
³ Institut Laue-Langevin, Grenoble, France.
⁴ Technical University, Munich, Germany.
⁵ Research Institute of Electrophysical Apparatus, S-Petersburg, Russia.

Abstract

Further improvement in the accuracy of any neutron lifetime experiment by means of ultracold neutrons (UCN) in material bottles is limited due to unavoidable systematic effects when the UCN are reflected from the walls. However, such effects can be excluded in principle if magnetic trapping of UCN is used. The storage of UCN in a small magnetic trap made of permanent magnets was demonstrated for the first time ever. The measured storage time in this feasibility study was (882 ± 16) s. At this level of accuracy no depolarization was observed.

Keywords: magnetic traps; permanent magnets; ultracold neutrons.