A new high sensitivity search for neutron-antineutron oscillations at the ESS

TL;DR

This paper proposes a highly sensitive search for neutron-antineutron oscillations at the European Spallation Source, aiming to significantly improve detection sensitivity and address fundamental questions in particle physics and cosmology.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental approach at the ESS that enhances sensitivity to neutron-antineutron oscillations by three orders of magnitude compared to previous experiments.

Findings

Projected sensitivity exceeds previous limits by 1000 times

Potential to uncover baryon number violation mechanisms

Implications for understanding matter-antimatter asymmetry

Abstract

A sensitive search for neutron-antineutron oscillations can provide a unique probe of some of the central questions in particle physics and cosmology: the energy scale and mechanism for baryon number violation, the origin of the baryon-antibaryon asymmetry of the universe, and the mechanism for neutrino mass generation. A remarkable opportunity has emerged to search for such oscillations with the construction of the European Spallation Source (ESS). A collaboration has been formed which has proposed a search at the ESS, which would provide a sensitivity to the oscillation probability which is three orders of magnitude greater than that achieved at an ILL experiment at which the present best limit on free neutron-antineutron oscillations was obtained.