First Direct Constraints on Fierz Interference in Free-Neutron β Decay

Authors

K. P. Hickerson, California Institute of Technology
X. Sun, California Institute of Technology
Y. Bagdasarova, Los Alamos National Laboratory
D. Bravo-Berguño, Virginia Tech
L. J. Broussard, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
M. A. -P. Brown, University of Kentucky
R. Carr, California Institute of Technology
S. Currie, Los Alamos National Laboratory
X. Ding, Virginia Tech
B. W. Filippone, California Institute of Technology
A. García, University of Washington
P. Geltenbort, Institut Laue-Langevin, France
J. Hoagland, North Carolina State University
A. T. Holley, Tennessee Tech University
R. Hong, University of Washington
T. M. Ito, Los Alamos National Laboratory
A. Knecht, Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland
C. -Y. Liu, Indiana University - Bloomington
J. L. Liu, California Institute of Technology
M. Makela, Los Alamos National Laboratory
R. R. Mammei, Virginia Tech
J. W. Martin, University of Winnipeg, Canada
D. Melconian, Texas A&M University
M. P. Mendenhall, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
S. D. Moore, North Carolina State University
C. L. Morris, Los Alamos National Laboratory
R. W. Pattie Jr., Los Alamos National Laboratory
A. Pérez Galván, Vertex Pharmaceuticals
R. Picker, TRIUMF Laboratory, Canada
M. L. Pitt, Virginia Tech
Bradley R. Plaster, University of KentuckyFollow

Abstract

Precision measurements of free-neutron β decay have been used to precisely constrain our understanding of the weak interaction. However, the neutron Fierz interference term b_n, which is particularly sensitive to beyond-standard-model tensor currents at the TeV scale, has thus far eluded measurement. Here we report the first direct constraints on this term, finding b_n = 0.067 ± 0.005_{stat^+0.090-0.061sys}, consistent with the standard model. The uncertainty is dominated by absolute energy reconstruction and the linearity of the β spectrometer energy response.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-30-2017

Notes/Citation Information

Published in Physical Review C, v. 96, issue 4, 042501, p. 1-6.

©2017 American Physical Society

The copyright holder has granted permission for posting the article here.

Due to the large number of authors, only the first 30 and the authors affiliated with the University of Kentucky are listed in the author section above. For the complete list of authors, please download this article or visit: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.96.042501

This group of authors is collectively known as the UCNA Collaboration.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.96.042501

Funding Information

This work is supported in part by the US Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Physics (DE-FG02-08ER41557, DE-SC0014622, DE-FG02-97ER41042) and the National Science Foundation (Grants No. NSF-0653222, No. NSF-0700491, No. NSF-0855538, No. NSF-1002814, No. NSF-1005233, No. NSF-1205977, No. NSF-1306997, No. NSF-1307426, No. 1506459, and No. NSF-1615153).

Repository Citation

Hickerson, K. P.; Sun, X.; Bagdasarova, Y.; Bravo-Berguño, D.; Broussard, L. J.; Brown, M. A. -P.; Carr, R.; Currie, S.; Ding, X.; Filippone, B. W.; García, A.; Geltenbort, P.; Hoagland, J.; Holley, A. T.; Hong, R.; Ito, T. M.; Knecht, A.; Liu, C. -Y.; Liu, J. L.; Makela, M.; Mammei, R. R.; Martin, J. W.; Melconian, D.; Mendenhall, M. P.; Moore, S. D.; Morris, C. L.; Pattie, R. W. Jr.; Pérez Galván, A.; Picker, R.; Pitt, M. L.; and Plaster, Bradley R., "First Direct Constraints on Fierz Interference in Free-Neutron β Decay" (2017). Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications. 537.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/physastron_facpub/537