A modular apparatus for use in high-precision measurements of parity violation in polarized eV neutron transmission

Abstract

We describe a modular apparatus for use in parity-violation measurements in epithermal neutron–nucleus resonances with high instantaneous neutron fluxes at the Manuel Lujan Jr. Neutron Scattering Center at Los Alamos National Laboratory. This apparatus is designed to conduct high-precision measurements of the parity-odd transmission asymmetry of longitudinally polarized neutrons through targets containing nuclei with p-wave neutron–nucleus resonances in the 0.1–10 eV energy regime and to accommodate a future search for time reversal violation in polarized neutron transmission through polarized nuclear targets. The apparatus consists of an adjustable neutron and gamma collimation system, a 3He-4He ion chamber neutron flux monitor, two identical cryostats for target cooling, an adiabatic eV-neutron spin flipper, a near-unit efficiency 6Li-7Li scintillation detector operated in current mode, a flexible CAEN data acquisition system, and a neutron spin filter based on spin-exchange optical pumping of 3He gas. We describe the features of the apparatus design devoted to the suppression of systematic errors in parity-odd asymmetry measurements. We describe the configuration of the apparatus used to conduct a precision measurement of parity violation at the 0.7 eV p-wave resonance in 139La which employs two identical 139La targets, one to polarize the beam on the p-wave resonance using the weak interaction and one to analyze the polarization.