Bound beta-decay of the free neutron: BoB

For many years neutron decay has been investigated as a possible pathway to the exploration of new physics. One such example is the bound beta-decay (BoB) of the neutron into a hydrogen atom and an anti-neutrino. This two-body decay mode offers a very elegant method to study neutrino helicities, just as the Goldhaber experiment has done. However, this rare decay has not yet been observed so far owing to the challenges of measuring a decay involving only electrically neutral particles with an estimated branching ratio of only 10(-6) of the three-body decay mode. Specifically an intense source of thermal neutrons would be required for such an experiment, such as the FRMII in Garching, the ILL in Grenoble or the ESS in Lund. This paper provides a summary of the novel experimental scheme that we propose to observe the BoB neutron decay, addressing all necessary problems in a very coherent way. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.