Berlin 2014 – scientific programme

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GR: Fachverband Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie

GR 21: Experimental Gravitation III

GR 21.2: Talk

Thursday, March 20, 2014, 15:05–15:25, SPA SR220

Preparing a Measurement of the Charge of the free Neutron within qBounce — Gunther Cronenberg¹, •Hanno Filter¹, Peter Geltenbort², Martin Thalhammer¹, Tobias Jenke¹, and Hartmut Abele¹ — ¹Atominstitut, Technische Universität Wien, Stadionallee 2, 1020 Wien, Austria — ²Institut Laue-Langevin, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France

With a new Gravity Resonance Spectroscopy technique we plan to probe the electric neutrality of the neutron. This is possible by expanding our existing qBounce setup. Through adding two regions to our current three regions setup, we would basically implement Ramsey*s Method of separated oscillating fields with a beam of ultracold neutrons [1]. The approach has the potential to improve the 25 years old existing limit on the electric neutrality of the neutron [2] [3]. Our project is related to the question of the quantisation of the electric charge, which is a well established experimental observation. Charge quantisation in the Standard Model of Particle Physics can be introduced by many fundamentally different extensions. Hence a measurement of the charge is a promising way to refine the theoretical framework with far reaching consequences for various topics i.e. neutron-antineutron oscillations, magnetic monopoles, or the search for a Grand Unified Theory [2].