Mainz has the most powerful source of ultracold neutrons, opening up the possibility of conducting a key experiment to determine the life time of the neutrons

09.06.2011

Scientists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Germany have built what is currently the strongest most potent source of ultracold neutrons. Ultracold neutrons (UCNs) were first generated here five years ago. They are much slower than thermal neutrons and are characterized by the fact that they can be stored in special containers. This property makes them important tools for experiments to investigate why matter dominates over antimatter in our universe and how the lightest elements were created directly after the Big Bang.