Measurement of the Electric Polarizability of the Neutron

Abstract

At the HELIOS neutron source in Harwell, the neutron transmission of Pb and C was very precisely measured within the $50 \mathrm{eV}<E<\mathrm{}50\mathrm{} \mathrm{keV}$ energy range, with use of a 150-m flight path, newly developed time-of-flight electronics, and a ${}_{}{}^{10}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{B}-\mathrm{l}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{d}$ liquid scintillator. After correction for neutron-electron, Schwinger, and resonance scattering, the electric polarizability of the neutron was determined to be ${\alpha }_n=(1.2\mathrm{}\pm 1.0)\times {10}^{-3\mathrm{}}$ ${\mathrm{fm}}^3$ from the energy dependence of the total scattering cross section.