Parity Violation, Time Reversal and the Neutron

Nuclear and Particle Physics at the Spallation Neutron Source

Geoffrey Greene

University of Tennessee / Oak Ridge National Laboratory

For more than half a century, low energy neutrons have been used to elucidate important issues related to the understanding of fundamental symmetries, the determination of fundamental constants, and the testing of basic theories in nuclear and particle physics. Currently investigations with "Cold" and "Ultra Cold" neutrons are addressing questions related to the origin of time reversal asymmetry, the unitarity of the CKM matrix, and the nature of the hadronic weak interaction. Current and proposed measurements of the neutron electric dipole moment, neutron beta decay and nucleon-nucleon parity violation will be reviewed. The opportunities for this work at the accelerator based Spallation Neutron Source, currently under construction at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, will be discussed.