A proposed method for measuring the electric dipole moment of the neutron using acceleration in an electric-field gradient and ultracold neutron interferometry

The use of an ultracold neutron interferometer incorporating an electrostatic accelerator having a strong electric field gradient to accelerate neutrons by their possible electric moments is proposed as a method of measuring the neutron electric dipole moment. Such electric acceleration, followed by an amplifier and a generator of phase difference, could develop relatively large phase differences and these could be measured as polarization differences. This method might extend the sensitivity of the measurement by several orders of magnitude beyond the current limit of 10−25 e cm. Furthermore, the systematic errors in such a measurement could be significantly different from those of the current EDM experiments.