Experimental search for neutron–mirror neutron oscillations using storage of ultracold neutrons

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• 作者：A.P. Serebrov ; E.B. Aleks ; rov ; N.A. Dovator ; S.P. Dmitriev ; A.K. Fomin ; P. Geltenbort ; A.G. Kharitonov ; I.A. Krasnoschekova ; M.S. Lasakov ; A.N. Murashkin ; G.E. Shmelev ; V.E. Varlamov ; A.V. Vassiljev
• 关键词：Mirror world ; Neutron oscillations ; Neutron lifetime ; Ultracold neutrons
• 刊名：Physics Letters B
• 出版年：2008
• 出版时间：22 May 2008
• 年：2008
• 卷：663
• 期：3
• 页码：181-185
• 全文大小：233 K

文摘

The idea of a hidden sector of mirror partners of elementary particles has attracted considerable interest as a possible candidate for dark matter. Recently it was pointed out by Berezhiani and Bento that the present experimental data cannot exclude the possibility of a rapid oscillation of the neutron n to a mirror neutron n′ with oscillation time much smaller than the neutron lifetime. A dedicated search for vacuum transitions n→n^′ has to be performed at weak magnetic field, where both states are degenerate. We report the result of our experiment, which compares rates of ultracold neutrons after storage at a weak magnetic field well below 20 nT and at a magnetic field strong enough to suppress the seeked transitions. We obtain a new limit for the oscillation time of n–n′ transitions, τ_osc(90 % C.L.)>414 s. The corresponding limit for the mixing energy of the normal and mirror neutron states is δm(90 % C.L.)<1.5×10⁻¹⁸ eV.