Lifetime success with 'stored' neutrons
1990Published in:
- Phys.World 3 (1990) 4, 41-44
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Abstract:
It might at first seem surprising that neutrons, which make up more than half of the total mass of the Earth as the electrically neutral building blocks of the elements, are unstable as individual particles. They survived after their creation during the first minute following the 'big bang', only when bound to protons and other neutrons within the potential well of nuclei. Once freed from the nucleus-for example through a fission chain reaction of uranium in reactors – neutrons have a lifetime of around 15 mins before decaying. New methods of measuring this lifetime using 'ultra-cold neutrons' (with total kinetic energy<3×10-7eV) stored in neutron 'bottles' are now emerging yielding more precise measurements than previously possible. The world average lifetime now stands at 888.6±2.6 s.- introductory
- n: lifetime
- n: confinement
- magnetic field: confinement
- astrophysics
- model: weak interaction
- weak interaction: model
- experimental results
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