Concept and strategy of SuperSUN: A new ultracold neutron converter

Estelle Chanel, Simon Baudoin, Marie-Hélène Baurand, Nadir Belkhier, Eric Bourgeat-Lami, Skyler Degenkolb, Maurits van der Grinten, Michael Jentschel, Victorien Joyet, Michael Kreuz, Eddy Lelièvre-Berna, Julio Lucas, Xavier Tonon and Oliver Zimmer

Jadavpur Journal of International Relations, 2022, vol. 24, issue 2, 111-121

Abstract: A new source of ultracold neutrons (UCNs), developed at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) and named SuperSUN, is currently being commissioned. Its operational principle is the conversion of cold neutrons, delivered by ILL’s existing beam H523, to UCNs in a vessel filled with superfluid helium-4, wherein the neutron’s energy and momentum are transferred by inelastic scattering to phonons in the superfluid. The inverse Boltzmann-suppressed process is negligible at temperatures below 0.6 K, enabling long storage times and high in-situ UCN densities as demonstrated at the ILL for two prototype sources. These two prototypes are installed at secondary beams behind crystal monochromators, whereas a primary beam with a white cold spectrum illuminates the SuperSUN conversion volume. This provides not only higher intensity around the wavelength 0.89 nm where the dominant single-phonon process for UCN production takes place, but also a contribution to UCN production by multi-phonon processes. In the first phase of the project, material walls will trap the UCNs, while in the second phase an octupole magnet will generate a 2.1 T magnetic field at the edge of the conversion volume. For low-field-seeking UCNs, this field increases the trapping potential and reduces wall losses so that the accumulated UCNs are spin-polarized as a result. SuperSUN aims to deliver the highest possible UCN densities to external storage experiments, the first of which will be the PanEDM experiment measuring the neutron’s permanent electric dipole moment.

Keywords: UCN source; superfluid helium; SuperSUN (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:jadint:v:24:y:2022:i:2:p:111-121

DOI: 10.3233/JNR-220013

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