Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2019
Volume 64, Number 3
Saturday–Tuesday, April 13–16, 2019; Denver, Colorado
Session H14: Mini-Symposium:The Neutron Lifetime Anomaly - possible explanations
10:45 AM–12:21 PM,
Sunday, April 14, 2019
Sheraton
Room: Plaza Court 3
Sponsoring
Unit:
DNP
Chair: Chris Wrede, Michigan State University
Abstract: H14.00004 : Search for novel decay modes using $^{11}$Be
11:45 AM–11:57 AM
Presenter:
Jason Surbrook
(Michigan State University, National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory)
Authors:
Jason Surbrook
(Michigan State University, National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory)
Tamas A Budner
(Michigan State University, National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory)
Moshe Friedman
(National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory)
Cathleen E Fry
(Michigan State University, National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory)
Brent E Glassman
(Michigan State University, National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory)
Molly A Janasik
(Michigan State University, National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory)
Emmanuel Pollacco
(IRFU, CEA)
Michael J Roosa
(Michigan State University, National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory)
Jordan Stomps
(Michigan State University, National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory)
Christopher Lars Henrik Wrede
(Michigan State University, National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory)
In 2014, the transmutation of $^{11}$Be to $^{10}$Be was observed using accelerator mass spectrometry and attributed to a previously unobserved mode of radioactive decay: $\beta^{-}$-delayed proton ($\beta^{-}p$) emission. The branching ratio of this decay channel was deduced to be nearly two orders of magnitude larger than expectations based on theoretical models. Confirmation of this discrepancy, through detection of emitted protons, would yield valuable input for these models and potentially relate the $\beta^{-}p$ rate to the neutron halo in $^{11}$Be.
A more exotic decay-process was proposed in early 2018. The neutron lifetime anomaly might be explained by a small decay branch to a ``dark neutron’’ that cannot be observed directly. If this were true, then a neutron could spontaneously disappear from a weakly neutron-bound nuclide such as $^{11}$Be, converting it to $^{10}$Be, without proton emission.
We have performed a measurement of the charged particle radiations from $^{11}$Be at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. The measurement employed the recently-commissioned GADGET system, a gas-filled detector based on a MICROMEGAS structure for charge amplification surrounded by the SeGA array of high purity Germanium detectors for gamma-ray detection.
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