Neutron disappearance and regeneration from a mirror state

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that if the transformation of a neutron to a mirror neutron exists with an oscillation time of the order of ten seconds, it can be detected in a rather simple disappearance and/or regeneration type experiment with an intense beam of cold neutrons. In the presence of a conjectural mirror magnetic field of unknown magnitude and direction, the resonance transformation conditions can be found by scanning the magnitude of the ordinary magnetic field in the range e.g. ±100µT. Magnetic field is assumed to be uniform along the path of neutron beam. If the transformation effect exists within this range, the direction and possible time variation of the mirror magnetic field can be determined with additional dedicated measurements.

On the Neutron Transition Magnetic Moment

“…The magnitudes of nTMM extracted from the difference in neutron lifetime results can be measured in rather simple experiments, such as one proposed in [32] for the GP-SANS beamline at HFIR. If the mirror magnetic field B with non-zero value is present, the experimental strategy with controlled uniform magnetic field B can be pursued, as described in the papers [31,32]. This would allow the detection of the n → n process and could also reveal the environmental effects of mirror matter e.g.…”

“…Beyond the results obtained in n → n direct searches with UCN [21,22,23,24,25,26,27] and summarized in [26] the possible new searches with cold neutrons, described in [31,32], might bring more evidence whether n → n transformation exists. These new proposed measurements are based on the detection of cold neutrons in intense beam after coming through the "region A" of controlled uniform magnetic field (in disappearance mode) or on total absorption of the cold neutron beam after passing through the "region A", allowing only produced mirror neutron to pass through an absorber and then regenerating them back to the detectable neutrons in the second "region B" with similar controlled uniform magnetic field (regeneration mode).…”

“…The direction and magnitude of the vector B is a priori unknown but it can be determined from scanning experiments, e.g., with the high-flux cold neutron beams as described in Refs. [31,32].…”

“…In the proposed cold-neutron-beam disappearance/regeneration experiments [31,32], with average neutron velocity v ∼ 800 m/s and flight path e.g., 16 m, for the entangled evolution of the (n, n ) oscillating system the gradients 0.4 mG/m would be required. Larger gradients can shorten the path of entangled evolution and effectively will lead to multiple shorter-in-time collapses which will increase the production of n states, since the probability in the fields larger than few mG and far from resonance due to nTMM will remain constant 2κ 2 .…”

“…These oscillations also can be tested via n → n → n regeneration experiments like those discussed in Refs. [31,32] and will be discussed also in this paper in relation to the possible existence of transition magnetic moment between n and n states.…”