Exotic decay channels are not the cause of the neutron lifetime anomaly

TL;DR

The paper demonstrates that the neutron lifetime anomaly cannot be explained by exotic dark decay channels, using new decay data that align neutron decay with nuclear beta decay results.

Contribution

It provides strong evidence against exotic decay channels being responsible for the neutron lifetime discrepancy, based on recent decay parameter measurements.

Findings

Neutron decay data now agree with nuclear beta decay data.

Exotic decay channels are excluded as the cause of the neutron lifetime anomaly.

The neutron lifetime discrepancy is unlikely due to unknown decay modes.

Abstract

Since long neutron lifetimes measured with a beam of cold neutrons are significantly different from lifetimes measured with ultracold neutrons bottled in a trap. It is often speculated that this "neutron anomaly" is due to an exotic dark neutron decay channel of unknown origin. We show that this explanation of the neutron anomaly can be excluded with a high level of confidence when use is made of new data on neutron decay parameters. Furthermore, data from neutron decay now compare well with Ft data derived from nuclear \b{eta} decays.