Neutron Life from Supercomputer Simulations
2018-06-05
Press Release
Jason Chang (iTHEMS/LBNL) and his colleagues have enlisted powerful supercomputers to calculate a quantity known as the "nucleon axial coupling," – which is central to our understanding of a neutron’s lifetime – with an unprecedented precision. Their method offers a clear path to further improvements that may help to resolve the experimental discrepancy of the lifetime of neutrons as well as to learn about as-yet undiscovered physics. The paper was published was published online May 30 in the journal Nature.
Reference
- C. C. Chang, A. N. Nicholson, E. Rinaldi, E. Berkowitz, N. Garron, D. A. Brantley, H. Monge-Camacho, C. J. Monahan, C. Bouchard, M. A. Clark, B. Joó, T. Kurth, K. Orginos, P. Vranas & A. Walker-Loud, A per-cent-level determination of the nucleon axial coupling from quantum chromodynamics, Nature 558, 91–94 (2018), doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0161-8