Neutron Beams Could Help Reveal The Elusive 'Fifth Force' of Nature, Scientists Say

sciencealert.com ^ | 14 SEPTEMBER 20214 | MICHELLE STARR

[BenLurkin]

Using a technique called pendellösung interferometry, a team of physicists...have used neutron beams to probe the crystal structure of silicon at the highest precision yet achieved...

This has revealed previously unrecognized properties in silicon, a material crucial to technology; more detailed information about the properties of the neutron; and placed important constraints on the fifth force, if it exists.

In a perfect silicon crystal, sheets of atoms in the lattice are arranged in planes that repeat in spacing and orientation. Bouncing the beam precisely off these planes can cause the neutrons to diverge in their routes through the lattice, generating faint interference patterns called pendellösung oscillations that reveal the structural properties of the crystal.

This technique yielded a new measurement of the charge radius in neutrons. Although neutrons are charge neutral, the three quark particles inside them are not. The up quark has a +2/3 charge, and each of the two down quarks has a -1/3 charge, which means overall they cancel each other out.

But inside the neutron, the charge is not evenly distributed. The positive charge concentrates in the center, and the negative around the edges; the distance between the two is called the charge radius.

If it exists, then it may have a force carrier, in the same way that photons are the force carrier for electromagnetism.

The length scale over which a force carrier can act is inversely proportional to its mass. The photon, which is massless, has a limitless range. Pendellösung interferometry can provide constraints on range of the fifth force carrier, which in turn can place limits on its strength.

The team's results have constrained the range of the fifth force carrier tenfold, which means future searches for the fifth force have a smaller range in which to look.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin. I hope someone's working on the connection between neutrons and oldtrons.

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[Gene Eric]

>> I hope someone’s working on the connection between neutrons and oldtrons.

To say you figured out the cougertrons?

[Moltke]

Pendellösung = “pendulum solution” FWIW.

[zeestephen]

Re: Your screen name - Moltke

I have not seen that name since I took 19th Century European History in college.

I was not history major, but I still remember many details of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, even though I read them more than a half century ago.

[HYPOCRACY]

The fifth force is Magic.

[zeestephen]

Thanks for posting, BenLurkin.

I used to grow hyper-pure silicon crystals when I worked in the computer chip wafer industry a couple decades ago.

How do they harvest enough neutrons to create a beam?

[Rockingham]

I hear that there are certain places of adult entertainment and recreation in Hamburg that use a Pendellösung.

[Moltke]

One or two other reasons as well for that screen name - too convoluted to explain, sort of an inside joke.

[Moltke]

St. Pauli Girl - it’s not just a beer...

[PIF]

Already known :

[Cooter]

A high flux nuclear reactor or a particle accelerator that spallate neutrons off a target

[EEGator]

Leeloo Dallas.

[Joe Brower]

[zeestephen]

Thanks for getting me started, Cooter.

Lots of good introductory material on the web.

I was familiar with the term neutron beam, but after reading the posted article, I realized I had no idea how they isolated them or energized them.

[SunkenCiv]

Cougartrons are somehow related to the detection of L-ions.

[BenLurkin]

{sigh}

I liked the Old Tron......it taught me how computers work.

[SuperLuminal]

Old news...
There were at least two TV shows in the 1960’s that were about, and utilized, the fifth force...

OTOH, we now have a VP of the U.S. who has routinely used the filth force to get ahead in politics...

[Gene Eric]

lol