Université de Fribourg

Search for axionlike dark matter through nuclear spin precession in electric and magnetic fields

Abel, C. ; Ayres, N.?J. ; Ban, G. ; Bison, G. ; Bodek, K. ; Bondar, V. ; Daum, M. ; Fairbairn, M. ; Flambaum, V.?V. ; Geltenbort, P. ; Green, K. ; Griffith, W.?C. ; Grinten, M. van der ; Grujiæ, Z.?D. ; Harris, P.?G. ; Hild, N. ; Iaydjiev, P. ; Ivanov, S.?N. ; Kasprzak, M. ; Kermaidic, Y. ; Kirch, K. ; Koch, H.-C. ; Komposch, S. ; Koss, P.?A. ; Kozela, A. ; Krempel, J. ; Lauss, B. ; Lefort, T. ; Lemi?re, Y. ; Marsh, D.?J.?E. ; Mohanmurthy, P. ; Mtchedlishvili, A. ; Musgrave, M. ; Piegsa, F.?M. ; Pignol, G. ; Rawlik, M. ; Rebreyend, D. ; Ries, D. ; Roccia, S. ; Rozpêdzik, D. ; Schmidt-Wellenburg, P. ; Severijns, N. ; Shiers, D. ; Stadnik, Y.?V. ; Weis, Antoine ; Wursten, E. ; Zejma, J. ; Zsigmond, G.

In: Physical Review X, 2017, vol. 7, no. 4, p. 041034

We report on a search for ultralow-mass axionlike dark matter by analyzing the ratio of the spin-precession frequencies of stored ultracold neutrons and 199Hg atoms for an axion-induced oscillating electric dipole moment of the neutron and an axion-wind spin-precession effect. No signal consistent with dark matter is observed for the axion mass range 10−24≤ma≤10−17 eV. Our null result...

Université de Fribourg

A device for simultaneous spin analysis of ultracold neutrons

Afach, S. ; Ban, G. ; Bison, Georg ; Bodek, K. ; Chowdhuri, Z. ; Daum, M. ; Fertl, M. ; Franke, B. ; Geltenbort, P. ; Grujić, Zoran. D. ; Hayen, L. ; Hélaine, V. ; Henneck, R. ; Kasprzak, Malgorzata ; Kermaïdic, Y. ; Kirch, K. ; Komposch, S. ; Kozela, A. ; Krempel, J. ; Lauss, B. ; Lefort, T. ; Lemière, Y. ; Mtchedlishvili, A. ; Cuncic, O. Naviliat ; Piegsa, F. M. ; Pignol, G. ; Prashanth, P. N. ; Quéméner, G. ; Rawlik, M. ; Ries, D. ; Rebreyend, D. ; Roccia, S. ; Rozpedzik, D. ; Wellenburg, P. Schmidt ; Severijns, N. ; Weis, Antoine ; Wursten, E. ; Wyszynski, G. ; Zejma, J. ; Zsigmond, G.

In: The European Physical Journal A, 2015, vol. 51, no. 11, p. 1–10

We report on the design and first tests of a device allowing for measurement of ultracold neutrons polarisation by means of the simultaneous analysis of the two spin components. The device was developed in the framework of the neutron electric dipole moment experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute. Individual parts and the entire newly built system have been characterised with ultracold...

Université de Fribourg

Observation of gravitationally induced vertical striation of polarized ultracold neutrons by spin-echo spectroscopy

Afach, S. ; Ayres, N. J. ; Ban, G. ; Bison, Georg ; Bodek, K. ; Chowdhuri, Z. ; Daum, M. ; Fertl, M. ; Franke, B. ; Griffith, W. C. ; Grujić, Z. D. ; Harris, P. G. ; Heil, W. ; Hélaine, V. ; Kasprzak, Malgorzata ; Kermaidic, Y. ; Kirch, K. ; Knowles, Paul E. ; Koch, H.-C. ; Komposch, S. ; Kozela, A. ; Krempel, J. ; Lauss, B. ; Lefort, T. ; Lemière, Y. ; Mtchedlishvili, A. ; Musgrave, M. ; Naviliat-Cuncic, O. ; Pendlebury, J. M. ; Piegsa, F. M. ; Pignol, G. ; Plonka-Spehr, C. ; Prashanth, P. N. ; Quéméner, G. ; Rawlik, M. ; Rebreyend, D. ; Ries, D. ; Roccia, S. ; Rozpedzik, D. ; Schmidt-Wellenburg, P. ; Severijns, N. ; Thorne, J. A. ; Weis, Antoine ; Wursten, E. ; Wyszynski, G. ; Zejma, J. ; Zenner, J. ; Zsigmond, G.

In: Physical Review Letters, 2015, vol. 115, no. 16, p. 162502

We describe a spin-echo method for ultracold neutrons (UCNs) confined in a precession chamber and exposed to a |B0|=1 μT magnetic field. We have demonstrated that the analysis of UCN spin-echo resonance signals in combination with knowledge of the ambient magnetic field provides an excellent method by which to reconstruct the energy spectrum of a confined ensemble of neutrons. The method...

Université de Fribourg

A measurement of the neutron to 199Hg magnetic moment ratio

Afach, S. ; Baker, C. A. ; Ban, G. ; Bison, Georg ; Bodek, K. ; Burghoff, M. ; Chowdhuri, Z. ; Daum, M. ; Fertl, M. ; Franke, B. ; Geltenbort, P. ; Green, K. ; Grinten, M. G. D. van der ; Grujic, Zoran ; Harris, P. G. ; Heil, W. ; Hélaine, V. ; Henneck, R. ; Horras, M. ; Iaydjiev, P. ; Ivanov, S. N. ; Kasprzak, Malgorzata ; Kermaïdic, Y. ; Kirch, K. ; Knecht, A. ; Koch, Hans-Christian ; Krempel, J. ; Kuźniak, M. ; Lauss, B. ; Lefort, T. ; Lemière, Y. ; Mtchedlishvili, A. ; Naviliat-Cuncic, O. ; Pendlebury, J. M. ; Perkowski, M. ; Pierre, E. ; Piegsa, F. M. ; Pignol, G. ; Prashanth, P. N. ; Quéméner, G. ; Rebreyend, D. ; Ries, D. ; Roccia, S. ; Schmidt-Wellenburg, P. ; Schnabel, A. ; Severijns, N. ; Shiers, D. ; Smith, K.F. ; Voigt, J. ; Weis, Antoine

In: Physics Letters B, 2014, vol. 739, p. 128–132

The neutron gyromagnetic ratio has been measured relative to that of the 199Hg atom with an uncertainty of 0.8 ppm. We employed an apparatus where ultracold neutrons and mercury atoms are stored in the same volume and report the result γn/γHg=3.8424574(30)γn/γHg=3.8424574(30).

Université de Fribourg

Testing isotropy of the universe using the Ramsey resonance technique on ultracold neutron spins

Altarev, I. ; Ban, G. ; Bison, Georg ; Bodek, K. ; Daum, M. ; Fertl, M. ; Fierlinger, P. ; Franke, B. ; Gutsmiedl, E. ; Heil, W. ; Henneck, R. ; Horras, M. ; Khomutov, N. ; Kirch, K. ; Kistryn, S. ; Kraft, A. ; Knecht, A. ; Knowles, Paul E. ; Kozela, A. ; Lauer, T. ; Lauss, B. ; Lefort, T. ; Lemière, Y. ; Mtchedlishvili, A. ; Naviliat-Cuncic, O. ; Pazgalev, Anatoly S. ; Petzoldt, G. ; Piegsa, F.M. ; Pierre, E. ; Pignol, G. ; Quéméner, G. ; Rebetez, M. ; Rebreyend, D. ; Roccia, S. ; Schmidt-Wellenburg, P. ; Severijns, N. ; Sobolev, Yu. ; Weis, Antoine ; Zejma, J. ; Zenner, J. ; Zsigmond, G.

In: Physica B: Condensed Matter, 2011, vol. 406, no. 12, p. 2365-2369

Physics at the Planck scale could be revealed by looking for tiny violations of fundamental symmetries in low energy experiments. In 2008, a sensitive test of the isotropy of the universe has been performed with stored ultracold neutrons (UCN), this is the first clock-comparison experiment performed with free neutrons. During several days we monitored the Larmor frequency of neutron spins in a...

Université de Fribourg

MC calculations for the nEDM experiment systematics

Bodek, K. ; Chowdhuri, Z. ; Daum, M. ; Fertl, M. ; Franke, B. ; Gutsmiedl, E. ; Henneck, R. ; Horras, M. ; Kasprzak, Malgorzata ; Kirch, K. ; Kistryn, S. ; Kozela, A. ; Krempel, J. ; Lauss, B. ; Mtchedlishvili, A. ; Piegsa, F. ; Pignol, G. ; Rebreyend, D. ; Roccia, S. ; Schmidt-Wellenburg, P. ; Zejma, J. ; Zenner, J. ; Zsigmond, G.

In: Physics Procedia, 2011, vol. 17, p. 259-267

The nEDM experiment hosted at the Paul Scherrer Institute is the flagship project at the new ultracold neutron facility. Estimations of systematic effects for the determination of the neutron electric dipole moment play an important role in this project. Experimental studies are supported by Monte Carlo simulations using the MCUCN code. Here we briefly present first results on the experimental...

Université de Fribourg

Test of Lorentz invariance with spin precession of ultracold neutrons

Altarev, I. ; Baker, C. A. ; Ban, G. ; Bison, Georg ; Bodek, K. ; Daum, M. ; Fierlinger, P. ; Geltenbort, P. ; Green, K. ; Grinten, M. G. D. van der ; Gutsmiedl, E. ; Harris, P. G. ; Heil, W. ; Henneck, R. ; Horras, M. ; Iaydjiev, P. ; Ivanov, S. N. ; Khomutov, N. ; Kirch, K. ; Kistryn, S. ; Knecht, A. ; Knowles, Paul E. ; Kozela, A. ; Kuchler, F. ; Kuźniak, M. ; Lauer, T. ; Lauss, B. ; Lefort, T. ; Mtchedlishvili, A. ; Naviliat-Cuncic, O. ; Pazgalev, Anatoly ; Pendlebury, J. M. ; Petzoldt, G. ; Pierre, E. ; Pignol, G. ; Quéméner, G. ; Rebetez, Martin ; Rebreyend, D. ; Roccia, S. ; Rogel, G. ; Severijns, N. ; Shiers, D. ; Sobolev, Yu. ; Weis, Antoine ; Zejma, J. ; Zsigmond, G.

In: Physical Review Letters, 2009, vol. 103, no. 8, p. 081602

A clock comparison experiment, analyzing the ratio of spin precession frequencies of stored ultracold neutrons and ¹⁹⁹Hg atoms, is reported. No daily variation of this ratio could be found, from which is set an upper limit on the Lorentz invariance violating cosmic anisotropy field b⊥<2×10⁻²⁰ eV (95% C.L.). This is the first limit for the free neutron. This result...

Université de Fribourg

Neutron to mirror-neutron oscillations in the presence of mirror magnetic fields

Altarev, I. ; Baker, C. A. ; Ban, G. ; Bodek, K. ; Daum, M. ; Fierlinger, P. ; Geltenbort, P. ; Green, K. ; Grinten, M. G. D. van der ; Gutsmiedl, E. ; Harris, P. G. ; Henneck, R. ; Horras, M. ; Iaydjiev, P. ; Ivanov, S. ; Khomutov, N. ; Kirch, K. ; Kistryn, S. ; Knecht, A. ; Knowles, Paul E. ; Kozela, A. ; Kuchler, F. ; Kuźniak, M. ; Lauer, T. ; Lauss, B. ; Lefort, T. ; Mtchedlishvili, A. ; Naviliat-Cuncic, O. ; Paul, S. ; Pazgalev, Anatoly ; Pendlebury, J. M. ; Petzoldt, G. ; Pierre, E. ; Plonka-Spehr, C. ; Quéméner, G. ; Rebreyend, D. ; Roccia, S. ; Rogel, G. ; Severijns, N. ; Shiers, D. ; Sobolev, Yu. ; Stoepler, R. ; Weis, Antoine ; Zejma, J. ; Zenner, J. ; Zsigmond, G.

In: Physical Review D, 2009, vol. 80, no. 3, p. 032003

We performed ultracold neutron storage measurements to search for additional losses due to neutron (n) to mirror-neutron (n') oscillations as a function of an applied magnetic field B. In the presence of a mirror magnetic field B', ultracold neutron losses would be maximal for B~B'. We did not observe any indication for...