E. V. Shulgina

Investigation of P-odd correlations in the capture of thermal polarized neutrons involving emission of secondary charged particles (technical issues)

Abstract An installation for measuring parity violation in reactions with polarized neutrons involving the emission of secondary charged particles is described. The main part of the experimental setup is a multisection proportional chamber operated in the current mode. The 6Li(n,α)3H and 10B(n,α)7Li reactions are studied. The P-odd asymmetry was measured with an accuracy of δ ∼ 5 × 10−8.

Discovery of a P-odd effect in triton emission from the reaction 6Li(n, α)3H

The results of measuring the P-odd asymmetry (Sn · Pt) for triton emission from the reaction 6Li(n, α)3H are presented. Here, Sn is the neutron spin and Pt is the triton momentum. Three series of measurements were performed, one at the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (Gatchina, Russia) in a vertical neutron beam from the PWR reactor and two in the PF1B beam from the reactor at the Institute Laue-Langevin (Grenoble, France). On the basis of all three experiments, the P-odd asymmetry coefficient was found to be αPN = −(8.6 ± 2.0) × 10−8. The results of zero experiments and calculations give every reason to believe that the above P-odd asymmetry is due to the reaction being studied.