New experiment on the observation of the effect of accelerating matter in neutron optics

Abstract

The results of a new experiment on the observation of the effect of accelerating matter in neutron optics are reported. It has been shown that the velocity of neutrons periodically varies when they pass through a harmonically moving refractive sample. The idea of the experiment is based on time focusing, i.e., on the fact that the periodic modulation of the velocity of neutrons leads to the oscillation of the flux density at the observation point. The magnitude of the effect is in reasonable agreement with the theoretical predictions. The experiment has been carried out with ultracold neutrons and a change of ±1 cm/s has been detected in the neutron velocity.