Ryan Opperman

Mentor: Dr. Matthew Redshaw
Research: Using FT-ICR for a Neutron Lifetime Beam Measurement

The neutron lifetime, τ_n, is an important quantity for the determination of |Vud| from neutron decay. The main methods that are used to measure τ_n are the in-beam and bottle methods. The in-beam method involves creating a beam of cold neutrons and measuring the number of decay products, i.e. protons that are emitted. In the BL2 in-beam experiment, a neutron beam passes through a Penning-type trap and decay protons are collected before being sent to an external proton detector to be counted. In this project, we investigate the possibility of using image charge detection to count protons directly inside the trap. SIMION and Python simulations are used to model proton trajectories inside the BL2 trap to estimate the efficiency of proton detection via image currents.