Symmetry (Jan 2022)

Neutron-Mirror Neutron Oscillations in Absorbing Matter

  • Yuri Kamyshkov,
  • James Ternullo,
  • Louis Varriano,
  • Zurab Berezhiani

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/sym14020230
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 2
p. 230

Abstract

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The possibility that a neutron can be transformed to a hidden sector particle remains intriguingly open. Proposed theoretical models conjecture that the hidden sector can be represented by a mirror sector, and the neutron n can oscillate into its sterile mirror twin n′, exactly or nearly degenerate in mass with n. Oscillations n−n′ can take place in vacuum or in an environment containing regular matter and a magnetic field, in which only the neutron will be subject to interactions with the environment. We describe the propagation of the oscillating n−n′ system in a cold neutron beam passing through dense absorbing materials in connection to the possible regeneration type of experiments, where the effect of n→n′→n transformation can be observed.

Keywords