Free neutron oscillations searches at the ESS

by Valentina Santoro (ESS)

Tuesday 9 Nov 2021, 11:00 → 12:00 Europe/Stockholm

H422/zoom

The 2020 Update for the European Strategy for Particle Physics explicitly highlights the need for programs at the so-called intensity frontier at other European laboratories together with the energy frontier research at CERN. The European Spallation Source ESS, presently under construction, in Lund, Sweden, is a multi-disciplinary international laboratory. It will operate the world's most powerful pulsed neutron source.  In this context, the fundamental physics program at the ESS, with a series of measurements and searches with unique potential and sensitivity represents a compelling possibility which should not be missed. 

Taking advantage of this unique potential of the ESS , the NNBAR collaboration proposed a two-stage program of experiments to perform high precision searches for neutron conversion in a range of baryon number violation channels culminating in an ultimate sensitivity increase for n → $\bar{n}$ oscillations of three orders of magnitude over the previously attained limit obtained at the Institut Laue-Langevin ILL. 

The first stage of this program HIBEAM (High Intensity Baryon Extraction and Measurement) will exploit the ESS fundamental physics beamline.  This stage focuses principally on searches for neutron conversion to sterile neutrons n' that would belong (or be related) to a “dark” sector.

The second stage, NNBAR, will exploit a large beam port, specifically designed for this experiment in the ESS target station monolith to maximize the neutron flux and search directly for n → $\bar{n}$ oscillations”. In the talk I will present both the HIBEAM and NNBAR projects with a special focus on the current developments on-going at the ESS

LundSeminar.pdf

ValentinaSantoro_sc_091121.mp4