Magnetic anomaly in UCN trapping: signal for neutron oscillations to parallel world?

Abstract

Present experiments do not exclude that the neutron transforms into some invisible degenerate twin, so called mirror neutron, with an appreciable probability. These transitions are actively studied by monitoring neutron losses in ultra-cold neutron traps, where they can be revealed by their magnetic field dependence. In this work we reanalyze the experimental data acquired by the group of A.P. Serebrov at Institute Laue-Langevin, and find a dependence at more than 5\sigma\ away from the null hypothesis. This anomaly can be interpreted as oscillation to mirror neutrons with a timescale of few seconds, in the presence of a mirror magnetic field B'~0.1G at the Earth. If confirmed by future experiments, this will have a number of deepest consequences in particle physics and astrophysics.