New experimental limits on neutron - mirror neutron oscillations in the presence of mirror magnetic field

Z. Berezhiani; R. Biondi; P. Geltenbort; I. A. Krasnoshchekova; V. E. Varlamov; A. V. Vassiljev; O. M. Zherebtsov

doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-018-6189-y

paper

New experimental limits on neutron - mirror neutron oscillations in the presence of mirror magnetic field

arXiv:1712.05761 · doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-018-6189-y

Abstract

Present probes do not exclude that the neutron ( $n$ ) oscillation into mirror neutron ( $n^{'}$ ), a sterile state exactly degenerate in mass with the neutron, can be a very fast process, in fact faster than the neutron decay itself. This process is sensitive to the magnetic field. Namely, if the mirror magnetic field $B^{'}$ exists at the Earth, $n - n^{'}$ oscillation probability can be suppressed or resonantly amplified by the applied magnetic field $B$ , depending on its strength and on the angle $β$ between $B$ and $B^{'}$ . We present the results of ultra-cold neutron storage measurements aiming to check the anomalies observed in previous experiments which could be a signal for $n - n^{'}$ oscillation in the presence of mirror magnetic field $B^{'} \sim 0.1$ ~G. Analyzing the experimental data on neutron loses, we obtain a new lower limit on $n - n^{'}$ oscillation time $τ_{n n^{'}} > 17$ s (95 % C.L.) for any $B^{'}$ between 0.08 and 0.17 G, and $τ_{n n^{'}} / cos β > 27$ s (95 % C.L.) for any $B^{'}$ in the interval ( $0.06 \div 0.25$ ) G.

New experimental limits on neutron - mirror neutron oscillations in the presence of mirror magnetic field

Abstract

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