We report high-resolution neutron inelastic scattering experiments on the spin excitations of NaV2O5. Below Tc, two branches with distinct energy gaps are identified. From the dispersion and intensity of the spin excitation modes, we deduce the precise zig-zag charge distribution on the ladder rungs and the corresponding charge order: ∆c ≈ 0.6. We argue that the spin gaps observed in the low-T phase of this compound are primarily due to the charge transfer.PACS numbers: 71.45. Lr, 75.10.Jm, 75.40.Gb The low dimensional inorganic compound NaV 2 O 5 undergoes a phase transition at T c = 34 K [1] associated with both a lattice distortion [2] and the opening of an energy gap to the lowest triplet spin excitations [3]. While the nature of the low-T phase in NaV 2 O 5 is not fully understood it is clear that, unlike CuGeO 3 , the spin-Peierls model does not apply simply to this compound [4]. The spin gap may result from charge-order (CO) rather than the lattice distortion [5]. Indeed, NMR measurements indicate two inequivalent vanadium sites below T c , while there exists only one site above [6]. There has been no direct evidence for the connection between CO and a spin gap, nor to distinguish various conjectured spatial distributions of charge [5,7]. In this letter, we present new results of neutron inelastic scattering (NIS) on the spin excitations in the low-T phase that can now resolve these issues.In NaV 2 O 5 , the vanadium ions have a formal valence of 4.5+. Initially, this was proposed to correspond to an alternation of V 4+ ions, with a spin value S = 1/2, and V 5+ ions with S = 0 [8]. At room temperature, NaV 2 O 5 is well described by a quarter-filled two-leg ladder system, with only one type of vanadium site V 4.5+ . From calculations of electronic structure [9,10], the strongest orbital overlaps are on the ladder rungs. One expects that the S = 1/2 spins are carried by the V-O-V molecular bonding orbitals, with charge fully delocalized on two sites. As the energy of the anti-bonding orbital is much higher, it can be projected out, and above T c , these spins, as they interact in the leg direction ( b axis), form an effective uniform quantum Heisenberg spin chain with interactions between chains that are both weaker and frustrated.At low temperatures, NMR shows this can no longer be so. On each rung, a charge transfer ∆ c may occur. Taking the average charge on vanadium sites to be 1/2, the charges on the two vanadium sites on a rung are defined through n ± = (1 ± ∆ c )/2. Two forms of CO can be considered [5], the in-line, with the same charge transfer on each rung, and the zig-zag with alternation in the charge along the ladders as shown in fig. 1b. Recent X-ray diffraction measurements [11] established that the lattice structure below T c consists of a succession of distorted and non-distorted ladders of vanadium ions (see fig. 1a). Neglecting inter-ladder diagonal couplings J ⊥ , the ladders would behave magnetically as independent spin chains. For one ladder (chain 2 in fig. 1a) distortions in the ...