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Thursday, 21 Nov 2024 |
Video-Recording for any system with MP4-support - Video.mp4 (ca. 314 Mb) |
15:15 – 16:05 |
"The nature of the neutron - dark devious or
social?"
Prof.
Thomas Nilsson
Chalmers)
Abstract:
The discovery of the neutron by J.
Chadwick in 1932 yielded the missing building
block
of the atom, following the electron and the proton. However, almost
a century later, the neutron
remains partly mysterious; there is a remaining
disagreement
in measurements of its lifetime that has been suggested to connect
to a “dark decay” process.
Neutrons are as well the tool for probing fundamental
symmetries,
like baryon number violation in possible neutron-antineutron
oscillation
experiments.
However, also in their role of building
blocks, neutrons still raise questions.
Being neutral, there is no Coulomb
repulsion prohibiting multi-neutron systems,
i.e. neutral nuclei to form.
This element, with atomic number zero, is in popular
science
coined neutronium. Bound and resonant multi-neutron
systems, especially
the tetraneutron,
has been searched for in decades, albeit modern few-body theories
generally
rule out at least the existence of a bound system. However, an experiment
using
the Radioactive Ion Beam Factory at RIKEN, Japan did recently find
tantalizing
evidence for a narrow structure that could be the tetraneutron.
In my talk, I will focus on the
experimental efforts leading up to this discovery,
and how to further explore the
"social" aspects of the neutron.