Precision Tests of Fundamental Physics with Ultracold Neutrons

Synopsis

The observed matter–antimatter asymmetry of the Universe is one of the major open questions in fundamental physics and motivates searches for new sources of charge-parity violation. Ultracold neutrons are a powerful tool for such precision tests because their very low kinetic energies allow them to be stored for hundreds of seconds, providing long interaction times and sensitivity to extremely small effects.

In this talk, I will introduce the physics of ultracold neutrons and focus on searches for the neutron electric dipole moment, one of the most sensitive probes of charge-parity violation beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics. I will also discuss how ultracold neutrons are produced and why achieving higher UCN densities is important for future precision experiments, including recent developments at TRIUMF, where the new ultracold-neutron source provides more ultracold neutrons to experiments than any other source in the world and enables some of the most precise tests of the Standard Model of Particle Physics with neutrons.