Ultra Cold Neutron Source

A user facility providing ultracold neutrons for fundamental physics research, based on accelerator driven spallation neutron production and a superthermal converter, was built at the Paul Scherrer Institut. Assembly of the facility finished in December 2010 with the first production of ultracold neutrons. The source is routinely operated by the NUM Division.

The UCN source provides neutrons at 3 beamports - West-1, West-2 and South, which differ in UCN intensity.

Experimental area South is allocated to the experiment searching for the electric dipole moment of the neutron (nEDM). A sensitivity of better than 10^-27 e^.cm is aimed at, providing one of the most sensitive searches for CP violation beyond the Standard Model of particle physics.

PSI accepts proposals for full experiments or hardware tests for UCN beamport West-1 and West-2, which should be provided via a standard beamline request.

For more information visit the BVR and Research Committee pages.

A description of the UCN experimental areas can be found in the manuscript on UCN beamlines at PSI.

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