Experimental search for neutron-antineutron oscillation with use of ultra-cold neutrons revisited

TL;DR

This paper revisits neutron-antineutron oscillation searches using ultra-cold neutrons, demonstrating that selecting specific wall materials can suppress decoherence and significantly improve sensitivity to baryon-number violation.

Contribution

It introduces a method to reduce decoherence in UCN storage by choosing wall materials with nearly equal neutron and antineutron optical potentials, enhancing oscillation detection sensitivity.

Findings

Decoherence can be suppressed with Ni-Al alloy walls.

Potential matching enables long UCN storage times.

Sensitivity could reach oscillation periods of 10^10 seconds.

Abstract

Neutron-antineutron oscillation (nnbar-osc) is a baryon-number-violating process and a sensitive probe for physics beyond the Standard Model. Ultra-cold neutrons (UCNs) are attractive for nnbar-osc searches because of their long storage time, but earlier analyses indicated that phase shifts on wall reflection differ for neutron and antineutron, leading to severe decoherence and loss of sensitivity. Here we revisit this problem by numerically solving the time-dependent Schroedinger equation for the two-component n/nbar wave function, explicitly including wall interactions. We show that decoherence can be strongly suppressed by selecting a wall material whose neutron and antineutron optical potentials are nearly equal. Using coherent scattering length data and estimates for antineutrons, we identify a Ni-Al alloy composition that matches the potentials within a few percent while providing a high absolute value, enabling long UCN storage. With such a bottle and an improved UCN source, the sensitivity could reach an oscilla-tion period tau_nnbar of order 10^10 s, covering most of the range predicted by certain grand-unified models. This approach revives the feasibility of high-sensitivity nnbar-osc searches using stored UCNs and offers a clear path to probe baryon-number violation far beyond existing limits.