We installed a source for ultracold neutrons at a new, dedicated spallation target at TRIUMF. The source was originally developed in Japan and uses a superfluid-helium converter cooled to 0.9 K. During an extensive test campaign in November 2017, we extracted up to 325 000 ultracold neutrons after a one-minute irradiation of the target, over three times more than previously achieved with this source. The corresponding ultracold-neutron density in the whole production and guide volume is 5.3 cm −3 . The storage lifetime of ultracold neutrons in the source was initially 37 s and dropped to 24 s during the eighteen days of operation. During continuous irradiation of the spallation target, we were able to detect a sustained ultracold-neutron rate of up to 1500 s −1 .Simulations of UCN production, UCN transport, temperature-dependent UCN yield, and temperature-dependent storage lifetime show excellent agreement with the experimental data and confirm that the ultracold-neutron-upscattering rate in superfluid helium is proportional to T 7 .

We provide analytic solutions of the net magnetic field generated by spherical and solenoidal coils enclosed in highly-permeable, coaxial magnetic shields.We consider both spherical and cylindrical shields in the case of the spherical coil and only cylindrical shields for the solenoidal coil. Comparisons of field homogeneity are made and we find that the solenoidal coil produces the more homogeneous field for a given number of windings. The models are useful as theoretical and conceptual guides for coil design, as well as for benchmarking finite-element analysis. We also demonstrate how the models can be generalized to explore field inhomogeneities related to winding misplacement.

Future experiments seeking to measure the neutron electric dipole moment (nEDM) require stable and homogeneous magnetic fields. Normally these experiments use a coil internal to a passively magnetically shielded volume to generate the magnetic field. The stability of the magnetic field generated by the coil within the magnetically shielded volume may be influenced by a number of factors. The factor studied here is the dependence of the internally generated field on the magnetic permeability µ of the shield material. We provide measurements of the temperature-dependence of the permeability of the material used in a set of prototype magnetic shields, using experimental parameters nearer to those of nEDM experiments than previously reported in the literature. Our measurements imply a range of 1 µ dµ dT from 0-2.7%/K. Assuming typical nEDM experiment coil and shield parameters gives µ B0 dB0 dµ = 0.01, resulting in a temperature dependence of the magnetic field in a typical nEDM experiment of dB0 dT = 0 − 270 pT/K for B 0 = 1 µT. The results are useful for estimating the necessary level of temperature control in nEDM experiments.

The central force problem is considered in a three dimensional space in which the Poisson bracket among the spatial coordinates is the one by the SU(2) Lie algebra. It is shown that among attractive power-law potentials it is only the Kepler one that all of its bound-states make closed orbits. The analytic solution of the path equation under the Kepler potential is presented. It is shown that except the Kepler potential, in contrast to ordinary space, all of the potentials for which all of the almost circular orbits are closed are non-power-law ones. For the non-power-law potentials examples of the numerical solutions of the path equations are presented.Comment: 18 pages, 6 fig

This article describes the new primary proton beamline 1U at TRIUMF. The purpose of this beamline is to produce ultracold neutrons (UCN) for fundamental-physics experiments. It delivers up to 40 µA of 480 MeV protons from the TRIUMF cyclotron to a tungsten spallation target and uses a fast kicker to share the beam between the Center for Molecular and Materials Science and UCN. The beamline has been successfully commissioned and operated with a beam current up to 10 µA, facilitating first large-scale UCN production in Canada.