Speaker
Description
The aCORN experiment measured the electron-antineutrino angular correlation coefficient (the ‘a’ coefficient) in free neutron decay on the NG-C neutron beam at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Though the NIST neutron beams are expected to be unpolarized, an earlier run of the experiment found a small polarization on the NG-6 beamline. The aCORN measurement is quite sensitive to neutron polarization, and the beam polarization was used as a blind on the aCORN results. To unveil the blind, the beam polarization was measured using a 3He cell polarized by spin-exchange optical pumping (SEOP). After a brief overview of the aCORN experiment, the neutron polarimetry system will be discussed.
Summary
For the aCORN experiment, the small polarization of the NG-C neutron beam at NIST was measured using a SEOP-based 3He spin filter.
