This award will support a two-year cooperative research project in neutron physics between Dr. Helmut Kaiser and Dr. Samuel A. Werner, University of Missouri-Columbia, and Professors Helmut Rauch and Anton Zeilinger, Atomic Institute of the Austrian Universities, Vienna, Austria. The scientists are collaborating in a series of joint experiments that will permit a comparison to be made of neutron interferometric methods developed in their respective laboratories. Planned are comparative coherent scattering length measurements, the exchange and testing of advanced interferometers, a phase echo experiment, and a Fizeau effect (rotating wheel or disk) experiment using very cold neutrons. Much of the work of the Austrian group is carried out at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), in Grenoble, France. The ILL and Missouri facilities are in some ways complementary, particularly in the energies, and therefore wavelengths, of the neutrons available. Comparative work at the two research facilities, using independently developed techniques and instrumentation to make measurements on the same physical samples, will also permit the U.S. and Austrian scientists to check for systematic errors in their work. The major impact of these studies will be in the field of fundamental physics. The experiments are expected to increase our understanding of the basic properties of neutrons and their interaction with matter. The Missouri and Vienna groups are among the very few in the world working on fundamental studies in neutron interferometry. The sharing of expertise, instrumentation, and samples should significantly enhance the efforts of both research groups.
