UCN source with superfluid helium at WWR-M reactor

Abstract

The WWR-M reactor at PNPI is going to be equipped with an ultracold neutron source of high density. Method of UCN production is based on their accumulation in the super fluid helium due to particular qualities of that quantum liquid. The satisfying storage time of UCN at WWR-M reactor in the super fluid helium exists at a temperature below 1.2 K. Our source aims at obtaining a density of UCN equals to 104 n/cm3, two orders of magnitude exceeding that in existing sources presently available in the world. Increase in the density of UCN will raise the accuracy of the measurement of the neutron electric dipole moment (EDM) of an order of magnitude, which is fundamentally important for the problem of CP violation. The most intense sources of UCN allows PNPI become the centre of fundamental researches with ultracold neutrons.