A new experiment to measure the electric dipole moment of the neutron?

For nearly fifty years, the limits on the electric dipole moment of the neutron have provided information of great importance in our understanding of the fundamental symmetries of nature. Current experiments using bottled Ultra Cold Neutrons (UCN) provide the best experimental limits on the neutron EDM. While modest improvements may be expected by extension of current methods, major reductions in the experimental error appear unlikely due to statistical sensitivity and systematic effects. This situation is unfortunate as several theoretical notions (supersymmetry and the origin of the baryon asymmetry) suggest a magnitude for the neutron EDM which may be only one or two orders of magnitude below the current limit. Recently, Golub and Lamoreaux (1) have suggested a new method for the measurement of the neutron EDM that uses a novel feature of the interaction between low energy neutron and superfluid 4He to provide a very high density of UCN in an experimental volume. The proposed method also promises a significant reduction in the dominant systematic effect using a polarized 3He co-magnetometer in the same volume. Their careful analysis suggests that an improvement of two orders of magnitude in the uncertainty of the neutron EDM may be possible. A review of the current experimental situation is given and the prospects for the realization of such a new experiment are discussed. copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics