Magnetic anomaly in UCN trapping: Signal for neutron oscillations to parallel world?

Abstract

Present experiments do not exclude that the neutron n oscillates, with an appreciable probability, into its invisible degenerate twin from a parallel world, the so-called mirror neutron n′. These oscillations were searched experimentally by monitoring the neutron losses in ultra-cold neutron traps, where they can be revealed by the magnetic field dependence of n-n′ transition probability. In this work we reanalyze the experimental data acquired by the group of A. P. Serebrov at Institute Laue-Langevin, and find a dependence at more than 5σ away from the null hypothesis. This anomaly can be interpreted as oscillation of neutrons to mirror neutrons with a timescale of few seconds, in the presence of a mirror magnetic field order 0. 1 G at the Earth. This result, if confirmed by future experiments, will have deepest consequences for fundamental particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology. © 2012 The Author(s).