Pith. sign in

REVIEW 8 cited by

Improved Determination of the Neutron Lifetime

Not yet reviewed by Pith; the record is open.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet. Machine review is queued; the pith claim, tier, and objections will appear here once it completes.

SPECIMEN: schema-true, not a live event

T0 review · schema-true

One-sentence machine reading of the paper's core claim.

pith:XXXXXXXX · record.json · timestamp

arxiv 1309.2623 v2 pith:SQ64KQY3 submitted 2013-09-10 nucl-ex

classification nucl-ex
keywords neutronlifetimemonitorefficiencymeasuredtextrmdetectiondetermination
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal

Signed reviews

No signed human review yet.

0 comments
abstract

The most precise determination of the neutron lifetime using the beam method was completed in 2005 and reported a result of $\tau_n = (886.3 \pm 1.2 [\textrm{stat}] \pm 3.2 [\textrm{syst}])$ s. The dominant uncertainties were attributed to the absolute determination of the fluence of the neutron beam (2.7 s). The fluence was measured with a neutron monitor that counted the neutron-induced charged particles from absorption in a thin, well-characterized 6Li deposit. The detection efficiency of the monitor was calculated from the areal density of the deposit, the detector solid angle, and the evaluated nuclear data file, ENDF/B-VI 6Li(n,t)4He thermal neutron cross section. In the current work, we have measured the detection efficiency of the same monitor used in the neutron lifetime measurement with a second, totally-absorbing neutron detector. This direct approach does not rely on the 6Li(n,t)4He cross section or any other nuclear data. The detection efficiency is consistent with the value used in 2005 but was measured with a precision of 0.057 %, which represents a five-fold improvement in the uncertainty. We have verified the temporal stability of the neutron monitor through ancillary measurements, allowing us to apply the measured neutron monitor efficiency to the lifetime result from the 2005 experiment. The updated lifetime is $\tau_n = (887.7 \pm 1.2 [\textrm{stat}] \pm 1.9 [\textrm{syst}])$ s.

Discussion (0). Continue with ORCID to comment.

Forward citations

Cited by 8 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. OpenAlex reports about 271 citations worldwide. Full citation record

  1. Complete one-loop QED corrections to $D_s^+$ leptonic decays and impact on the CKM unitarity test

    hep-ph 2025-11 unverdicted novelty 7.0 of 10

    Complete one-loop QED and electroweak corrections to D_s^+ leptonic decays give |V_cs| = 0.991 ± 0.007 from latest data, aligning second-column CKM unitarity with the Standard Model.

  2. Quantum Monte Carlo calculation of $\delta_{\rm NS}$ in $^{10}$C using an effective field theory approach

    nucl-th 2025-09 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    The first quantum Monte Carlo evaluation of the nuclear-structure-dependent radiative correction in carbon-10 confirms the NCSM dispersion result, with the residual uncertainty set by two undetermined low-energy constants.

  3. Towards Precise Simulations and Inference for the Neutron EDM

    nucl-th 2025-09 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    GEANT4 simulations of the SuperSUN ultracold neutron source are paired with neural simulation-based inference to recover UCN loss parameters from time-of-flight spectra.

  4. Semi-invisible Hyperon Decays in the Effective Lagrangian Approach

    hep-ph 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 4.0 of 10

    Branching ratios for hyperon semi-invisible decays (hadronic ~10^{-5}, radiative <10^{-7}) are calculated with sizable one-loop corrections using effective Lagrangians.

  5. Weinberg Angle, Neutron Abundance in BBN, and Lifetime

    hep-ph 2026-03 conditional novelty 4.0 of 10

    Small shifts in the Weinberg angle change the effective Fermi constant enough to visibly alter the neutron abundance at BBN onset and the neutron lifetime in the early-Universe plasma.

  6. Effect of Dark matter and $\sigma$-cut potential on radial and non-radial oscillation modes in neutron stars

    astro-ph.HE 2025-07 conditional novelty 4.0 of 10

    Dark matter-admixed neutron stars oscillate at higher f- and p1-mode frequencies than ordinary or σ-cut models, while quasi-universal oscillation relations still hold.

  7. Particles in finite volumes and a toy model of decaying neutrons

    hep-ph 2025-04 reject novelty 4.0 of 10

    A toy scalar model of neutron decay suggests finite-volume effects and initial neutron-daughter correlations can shift the predicted neutron lifetime to about 887 seconds, but the agreement is obtained by tuning a parameter.

  8. The cross section of inverse beta decay

    hep-ph 2024-12 conditional novelty 2.0 of 10

    The inverse beta decay cross section can be predicted to 0.1% at low energies, but the uncertainty estimate relies on selective use of neutron lifetime data and ad hoc error inflation.

Pith tools