Monte Carlo simulation of the experiment MAMBO I and possible correction of neutron lifetime result

TL;DR

This paper uses Monte Carlo simulations to analyze neutron lifetime experiments, identifying potential systematic errors due to quasi-elastic scattering, and suggests a corrected neutron lifetime value based on these findings.

Contribution

It introduces a Monte Carlo simulation approach to correct previous neutron lifetime measurements affected by surface scattering effects.

Findings

Previous neutron lifetime measurements may be systematically biased.

A corrected neutron lifetime value of 880.4 seconds is proposed.

Quasi-elastic scattering significantly impacts experimental results.

Abstract

We are discussing the present situation with neutron lifetime measurements. There is a serious discrepancy between the previous experiments and the recent precise experiment [1]. The possible reason of the discrepancy can be connected with a quasi-elastic scattering of UCN on the surface of liquid fomblin which was used for most of the previous experiments. The Monte Carlo simulation of one of the previous experiments [2] shows that the result of this experiment [2] has to be corrected and instead of the previous result 887.6 +/- 3 s the new result 880.4 +/- 3 s has to be claimed. [1] A.P. Serebrov et al., Phys. Lett. B 605 (2005) 72. [2] W. Mampe et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 63 (1989) 593.