Commissioning of the neutron lifetime experiment PENeLOPE at TRIUMF

by Jacqueline Dellith (TUM)

Thursday 26 Jun 2025, 09:30 → 10:30 Europe/Berlin

E18/ENE Seminar Room 3268 (TUM PH)

PENeLOPE is an ultra-cold neutron trap that seeks to measure the neutron lifetime with a precision of 0.1 s, by monitoring both decay protons and surviving neutrons. The neutrons are trapped nearly loss-free in a strong magnetic field produced by superconducting coils. Cooling down the two ton coil and cryostat assembly of PENeLOPE to 4.2 K is necessary to enable the quench training of these coils to reach their nominal current.

Due to complications that prevented progression of the experiment in Germany, PENeLOPE was transferred to the TRIUMF facility in Vancouver, Canada, last year. Re-assembly and setup were completed this April.

In this talk, I will present my coolant requirement calculations that informed our cooldown strategy, the first cooldown of PENeLOPE at TRIUMF, and next steps.