Measurement of the free neutron lifetime using the neutron spectrometer on NASA's Lunar Prospector mission

Wilson, Jack T.; Lawrence, David J.; Peplowski, Patrick N.; Eke, Vincent R.; Kegerreis, Jacob A.

doi:10.1103/physrevc.104.045501

Measurement of the free neutron lifetime using the neutron spectrometer on NASA's Lunar Prospector mission

Wilson, Jack T.; Lawrence, David J.; Peplowski, Patrick N.; Eke, Vincent R.; Kegerreis, Jacob A.

Authors

Jack T. Wilson

David J. Lawrence

Patrick N. Peplowski

Dr Vincent Eke v.r.eke@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

Jacob Kegerreis jacob.kegerreis@durham.ac.uk
Academic Visitor

Abstract

We use data from the Lunar Prospector Neutron Spectrometer to make the second space-based measurement of the free neutron lifetime finding τ n = 887 ± 14 stat + 7 − 3 syst s, which is within 1 σ of the accepted value. This measurement expands the range of planetary bodies where the neutron lifetime has been quantified from space, and by extending the modeling to account for nonuniform elemental composition, we mitigated a significant source of systematic uncertainty on the previous space-based lifetime measurement. This modeling moves space-based neutron lifetime measurement towards the ultimate goal of reducing the magnitude of the systematics on a future space-measurement to the level of those seen in laboratory-based experiments.

Citation

Wilson, J. T., Lawrence, D. J., Peplowski, P. N., Eke, V. R., & Kegerreis, J. A. (2021). Measurement of the free neutron lifetime using the neutron spectrometer on NASA's Lunar Prospector mission. Physical Review C, 104(4), Article 045501. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevc.104.045501

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Aug 2, 2021
Online Publication Date	Oct 13, 2021
Publication Date	2021-10
Deposit Date	Dec 8, 2021
Publicly Available Date	Dec 8, 2021
Journal	Physical Review C
Print ISSN	2469-9985
Electronic ISSN	2469-9993
Publisher	American Physical Society
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	104
Issue	4
Article Number	045501
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevc.104.045501

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