Constraints on spin-dependent short-range interactions using gravitational quantum levels of ultracold neutrons

TL;DR

This paper proposes improving constraints on spin-dependent short-range interactions at micrometer scales by utilizing gravitational quantum states of ultracold neutrons and plans to enhance these constraints significantly with a new polarized neutron experiment.

Contribution

It introduces a method to significantly tighten constraints on short-range spin-dependent forces using gravitational quantum states of ultracold neutrons and a next-generation spectrometer.

Findings

Current constraints are unmatched in the 1-200 micrometer range.

Projected three orders of magnitude improvement with upcoming experiments.

Utilization of polarized neutrons and advanced spectrometry enhances sensitivity.

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss a possibility to improve constraints on spin-dependent short-range interactions in the range of 1 - 200 micrometer significantly. For such interactions, our constraints are without competition at the moment. They were obtained through the observation of gravitationally bound states of ultracold neutrons. We are going to improve these constraints by about three orders of magnitude in a dedicated experiment with polarized neutrons using the next-generation spectrometer GRANIT.