Neutron Polarimetry Using a Polarized 3He Cell for the aCORN Experiment

Published

November 16, 2020

Author(s)

Benjamin C. Schafer, W A. Byron, Wangchun Chen, B Collett, Maynard S. Dewey, Thomas R. Gentile, Md. T. Hassan, Gordon L. Jones, Alexander Komives, Fred E. Wietfeldt

Abstract

The neutron polarization of the NG-C beamline at the NIST Center for Neutron Research was measured as part of the aCORN neutron beta decay experiment. Neutron transmission through a polarized 3He spin filter cell was recorded while adiabatic fast passage (AFP) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) reversed the polarization direction of the 3He in an eight-step sequence to account for drifts. The dependence of the neutron transmission on the spin filter direction was used to calculate the neutron polarization. The time dependent transmission was fit to a model which included the neutron spectrum, and 3He polarization losses from spin relaxation and AFP-NMR. The neutron polarization averaged over the spectrum of the NG-C beam was found to be ∣n∣ ≤ 4 × 10−4 with 90% confidence.

Citation

Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research A

Volume

988

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2020.164862

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Keywords

Neutrons, Polarimetry, 3He cell, Spin filter

Citation

Schafer, B. , Byron, W. , Chen, W. , Collett, B. , Dewey, M. , Gentile, T. , Hassan, M. , Jones, G. , Komives, A. and Wietfeldt, F. (2020), Neutron Polarimetry Using a Polarized 3He Cell for the aCORN Experiment, Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research A, [online], https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2020.164862, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=930952 (Accessed October 12, 2025)