Spectrometer for new gravitational experiment with UCN

Abstract

We describe an experimental installation for a new test of the weak equivalence principle for neutron. The device is a sensitive gravitational spectrometer for ultra-cold neutrons allowing to precisely compare the gain in kinetic energy of free falling neutrons to quanta of energy $\hslash \Omega$ transferred to the neutron via a non stationary device, i.e. a quantum modulator. The results of first test experiments indicate a collection rate allowing measurements of the factor of equivalence $\gamma$ with a statistical uncertainty in the order of $5\times 10^{-3}$ per day. A number of systematic effects were found, which partially can be easily corrected. For the elimination of others more detailed investigations and analysis are needed. Some possibilities to improve the device are also discussed.

Submitted to NIMA

References in corpus (1)

• CODATA Recommended Values of the Fundamental Physical Constants: 2010

Cited by in corpus (11)

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• On free fall of fermions and antifermions
• Casimir-Polder interaction of neutrons with metal or dielectric surfaces