An experimental search for an explanation of the difference between beam and bottle neutron lifetime measurements

TL;DR

This paper investigates the longstanding discrepancy between beam and bottle neutron lifetime measurements by analyzing recent ultracold neutron data through a specific theoretical model to identify potential explanations.

Contribution

It provides an experimental analysis of neutron lifetime differences using the Koch and Hummel model, aiming to clarify the observed measurement discrepancy.

Findings

Identifies potential factors contributing to the neutron lifetime discrepancy.

Provides new insights into neutron decay measurements and their interpretation.

Suggests directions for future experimental and theoretical research.

Abstract

The past two decades have yielded several new measurements and reanalysis of older measurements of the neutron lifetime. These have led to a 4.4 standard deviation discrepancy between the most precise measurements of the neutron decay rate producing protons in cold neutron beams and the most precise lifetime measured in neutron storage experiments. Here we publish an analysis of the recently published UCN aimed a searching for an explanation of this difference using the model proposed by Koch and Hummel.