Development of a prototype shield for a new EDM experiment

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Stephan Paul
• Subject Area: Nuclear and Elementary Particle Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Relativity, Fields
• Term: from 2010 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 174298135

In this project we plan to design a passive magnetic shielding for a new neutron EDM experiment. The shielding consists of five layers of mu-metal, for which prototype parts shall be built and characterized. Preparing development and design work is necessary because of the chambers large dimensions (~ 1.5 m x 3.5 m) which impede the scaling of results gained with small samples. Thereby we will test several aspects of the shielding like the mechanical connections or opening mechanisms and how they affect the shielding quality. Tests shall be performed on probes, which will be measured at the PTB Berlin, and on larger prototype parts which should give insight on shielding factors and residual magnetization under realistic conditions. In order to perform those tests, measurement setups will have to be adapted to existing infrastructure at the PTB Berlin. Simulations and calculations of this extreme case where thin mu-metal layers with high permeability interact with magnetic fields will be performed with different software tools and will be compared with measurements of coils (Excellence Cluster) and mu-metall (TUM, PTB).

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1491: Precision Experiments in Particle- and Astrophysics with Cold and Ultracold Neutrons
• Major Instrumentation: Low frequency demagnisation system ; Prototype mu-metal shield
• Instrumentation Group: 0160 Stromversorgungs- und Steuergeräte für Magnete: Zubehör ; 2770 Störschutzgeräte und -anlagen, Faraday-Käfige