$8.2M grant awarded to Tulane physicist

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What is the precise lifetime measurement of a free neutron? A Tulane University physicist has been awarded an $8.2 million grant to find out.

In the largest direct National Science Foundation grant awarded to Tulane, physics professor Fred Wietfeldt has been awarded $8.2 million to build a new apparatus aimed at solving the precise measurement of the lifetime of a free neutron.

“Precision measurements of fundamental quantities such as the neutron lifetime enable scientists to critically test the self-consistency and accuracy of our current theories of physics and the universe and hopefully point the way to more complete and correct theories that we believe exist,” Wietfeldt said. “We will measure the free neutron lifetime using the cold beam method to unprecedented precision and innovative techniques that promise to resolve the neutron lifetime discrepancy.”

Tulane is leading a collaboration of 10 universities conducting the research, including scientists at the University of Tennessee, University of Kentucky, Indiana University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Drexel University, Eastern Kentucky University, Hamilton College, University of Manitoba and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

“It’s very exciting for Tulane and SSE to be directing this major, nationally important experiment to measure the neutron lifetime,” said Kimberly Foster, dean of the Tulane School of Science and Engineering. Foster said the grant signals Tulane’s emergence as a leading center for research in the physical sciences.

The neutron lifetime has been measured by dozens of experiments over the past 70 years, but the most precise results from the two leading methods — cold neutron beam measurements and ultracold neutron storage measurements — significantly disagree by more than 4 standard deviations. Correcting that discrepancy is the goal of the experiment using a new apparatus called BL3. “We will measure the free neutron lifetime using the cold beam method to unprecedented precision and innovative techniques that promise to resolve the neutron lifetime discrepancy,” Wietfeldt said.

To learn more, visit Tulane’s website.