Commissioning of the new high-intensity ultracold neutron source at the Paul Scherrer Institut

TL;DR

The paper reports on the commissioning of a new high-intensity ultracold neutron source at PSI, designed to significantly increase UCN densities for fundamental physics, especially neutron electric dipole moment searches.

Contribution

It introduces a novel high-intensity UCN source based on spallation and solid deuterium cooling, with successful initial beam testing and installation progress.

Findings

Successful beam test with 2 mA proton beam

Most components installed, final mounting underway

Installation on track for first UCN production in 2010

Abstract

Commissioning of the new high-intensity ultracold neutron (UCN) source at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) has started in 2009. The design goal of this new generation high intensity UCN source is to surpass by a factor of ~100 the current ultracold neutron densities available for fundamental physics research, with the greatest thrust coming from the search for a neutron electric dipole moment. The PSI UCN source is based on neutron production via proton induced lead spallation, followed by neutron thermalization in heavy water and neutron cooling in a solid deuterium crystal to cold and ultracold energies. A successful beam test with up to 2 mA proton beam on the spallation target was conducted recently. Most source components are installed, others being finally mounted. The installation is on the track for the first cool-down and UCN production in 2010.