The Nab experiment: A precision measurement of unpolarized neutron beta decay
Neutron beta decay is one of the most fundamental processes in nuclear physics and provides sensitive means to uncover the details of the weak interaction. Neutron beta decay can evaluate the ratio of axial-vector to vector coupling constants in the standard model, λ = g A / g V , through multiple decay correlations. The Nab experiment will carry out measurements of the electron-neutrino correlation parameter a with a precision of δ a / a = 10 −3 and the Fierz interference term b to δ b = 3 × 10 −3 in unpolarized free neutron beta decay. These results, along with a more precise measurement of the neutron lifetime, aim to deliver an independent determination of the ratio λ with a precision of δλ/λ = 0.03% that will allow an evaluation of V ud and sensitively test CKM unitarity, independent of nuclear models. Nab utilizes a novel, long asymmetric spectrometer that guides the decay electron and proton to two large area silicon detectors in order to precisely determine the electron energy and an estimation of the proton momentum from the proton time of flight. The Nab spectrometer is being commissioned at the Fundamental Neutron Physics Beamline at the Spallation more »
Authors:
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
Award ID(s):
Publication Date:
NSF-PAR ID:
10166130
Journal Name:
EPJ Web of Conferences
Volume:
219
Page Range or eLocation-ID:
04002
ISSN:
2100-014X
We present the first unquenched lattice-QCD calculation of the form factors for the decay$$B\rightarrow D^*\ell \nu$$$B\to {D}^{\ast }\ell \nu$at nonzero recoil. Our analysis includes 15 MILC ensembles with$$N_f=2+1$$${N}_{f}=2+1$flavors of asqtad sea quarks, with a strange quark mass close to its physical mass. The lattice spacings range from$$a\approx 0.15$$$a\approx 0.15$fm down to 0.045 fm, while the ratio between the light- and the strange-quark masses ranges from 0.05 to 0.4. The valencebandcquarks are treated using the Wilson-clover action with the Fermilab interpretation, whereas the light sector employs asqtad staggered fermions. We extrapolate our results to the physical point in the continuum limit using rooted staggered heavy-light meson chiral perturbation theory. Then we apply a model-independent parametrization to extend the form factors to the full kinematic range. With this parametrization we perform a joint lattice-QCD/experiment fit using several experimental datasets to determine the CKM matrix element$$|V_{cb}|$$$|{V}_{\mathrm{cb}}|$. We obtain$$\left| V_{cb}\right| = (38.40 \pm 0.68_{\text {th}} \pm 0.34_{\text {exp}} \pm 0.18_{\text {EM}})\times 10^{-3}$$$\left({V}_{\mathrm{cb}}\right)=\left(38.40±0.{68}_{\text{th}}±0.{34}_{\text{exp}}±0.{18}_{\text{EM}}\right)×{10}^{-3}$. The first error is theoretical, the second comes from experiment and the last one includes electromagnetic and electroweak uncertainties, with an overall$$\chi ^2\text {/dof} = 126/84$$${\chi }^{2}\text{/dof}=126/84$, which illustrates the tensions between the experimental data sets, and between theory and experiment. This result is inmore »
4. Abstract A double-phase argon Time Projection Chamber (TPC), with an active mass of 185 g, has been designed and constructed for the Recoil Directionality (ReD) experiment. The aim of the ReD project is to investigate the directional sensitivity of argon-based TPCs via columnar recombination to nuclear recoils in the energy range of interest (20– $$200\,\hbox {keV}_{nr}$$ 200 keV nr ) for direct dark matter searches. The key novel feature of the ReD TPC is a readout system based on cryogenic Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs), which are employed and operated continuously for the first time in an argon TPC. Over the course of 6 months, the ReD TPC was commissioned and characterised under various operating conditions using $$\gamma$$ γ -ray and neutron sources, demonstrating remarkable stability of the optical sensors and reproducibility of the results. The scintillation gain and ionisation amplification of the TPC were measured to be $$g_1 = (0.194 \pm 0.013)$$ g 1 = ( 0.194 ± 0.013 ) photoelectrons/photon and $$g_2 = (20.0 \pm 0.9)$$ g 2 = ( 20.0 ± 0.9 ) photoelectrons/electron, respectively. The ratio of the ionisation to scintillation signals (S2/S1), instrumental for the positive identification of a candidate directional signal induced by WIMPs, has been investigatedmore »
5. A bstract This article presents differential measurements of the asymmetry between $${\varLambda}_b^0$$ Λ b 0 and $${\overline{\varLambda}}_b^0$$ Λ ¯ b 0 baryon production rates in proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of $$\sqrt{s}$$ s = 7 and 8 TeV collected with the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb − 1 . The $${\varLambda}_b^0$$ Λ b 0 baryons are reconstructed through the inclusive semileptonic decay $${\varLambda}_b^0$$ Λ b 0 → $${\varLambda}_c^{+}$$ Λ c + μ − $$\overline{\nu}$$ ν ¯ μ X . The production asymmetry is measured both in intervals of rapidity in the range 2 . 15 < y < 4 . 10 and transverse momentum in 2 < p T < 27 GeV/ c . The results are found to be incompatible with symmetric production with a significance of 5.8 standard deviations for both $$\sqrt{s}$$ s = 7 and 8 TeV data, assuming no CP violation in the decay. There is evidence for a trend as a function of rapidity with a significance of 4 standard deviations. Comparisons to predictions from hadronisation models in P ythia and heavy-quark recombination aremore »