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Abstract:
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When a neutron decays, it produces a proton, an electron and an antineutrino. In a neutron lifetime experiment performed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a beam of neutrons passes through a detection volume. Each run of the experiment consists of a trapping stage where protons are confined in a trap, and a detection stage where purged protons are detected. In each detection stage, the detector goes dead after the first proton that arrives. I present asymptotically valid formulas for the bias, variance, and mean square prediction error of a maximum likelihood estimate of the proton trapping rate. Based on the value of the flux of neutrons and the duration of the detection stage, I determine the duration of the trapping stage that minimizes the mean square error of the proton trapping rate estimate.
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