Helium film may greatly increase the storage time of ultracold neutrons in material traps

TL;DR

This paper proposes using a superfluid helium film on trap walls to significantly increase ultracold neutron storage time and measurement precision by reducing wall interactions, with potential tenfold improvements.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method of coating neutron traps with superfluid helium, combining van der Waals and capillary effects to enhance film thickness and reduce neutron losses.

Findings

Helium film can greatly decrease UCN losses in traps.

Surface roughness can increase helium film thickness.

Low temperature is required to prevent helium vapor interactions.

Abstract

We propose a method to increase both the neutron storage time and the precision of its lifetime measurements by at least tenfold. The storage of ultracold neutrons (UCN) in material traps now provides the most accurate measurements of neutron lifetime and is used in many other experiments. The precision of these measurements is limited by the interaction of UCN with the trap walls. We show that covering trap walls with liquid helium may strongly decrease the UCN losses from material traps. $^4$He does not absorb neutrons at all. Superfluid He covers the trap walls as a thin film, $\sim 10$ nm thick, due to the van der Waals attraction. However, this He film on a flat wall is too thin to protect the UCN from their absorption inside a trap material. By combining the van der Waals attraction with capillary effects we show that surface roughness may increase the thickness of this film much beyond the neutron penetration depth $\sim 33$nm. Using liquid He for UCN storage requires low temperature $T<0.5$ K to avoid neutron interaction with He vapor, while the neutron losses because of the interaction with surface waves are small and can be accounted for using their linear temperature dependence.