Paul Huffman

Associate Professor Specializes in Experimental Nuclear Physics

Contact Information Physics Department NC State University Box 8202 Raleigh, NC 27695 Work Address: 160D Riddick Hall Phone: (919) 515-3314 Fax: (919) 515-6538 Biography After obtaining his BS at NC State in 1990, Paul earned his MA (in 1992) and his PhD (in 1995) at Duke University. Paul spent three years as post-doc at Harvard University before taking a position at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, MD. Paul joined the Physics department in 2004 as an Associate Professor.

Areas of Interest My research efforts are centered around using neutrons to both test the Standard Model and investigate the weak interaction through beta decay and neutron-nucleon processes. The primary thrust of my research is centered around an experiment to measure the neutron lifetime using magnetically trapped neutrons. The goal of this experiment is to substantially improve the precision in the measurement of the neutron lifetime. We have developed a technique employing magnetic trapping of neutrons that should allow us to make a more precise measurement than in previous efforts. Our goal over the next three years is to perform a lifetime measurement with a relative precision of 1 x 10-3, comparable to the present world average. A larger, deeper magnetic trap will be incorporated into the apparatus which should allow us to trap more than an order of magnitude more neutrons without substantial increases in backgrounds. The neutron lifetime experiment is presently using neutrons from the NIST Center for Neutron Research. Recent Publications "Magnetic Trapping of Neutrons," Nature. 403. P. R. Huffman, C. R. Brome, J. S. Butterworth, K. J. Coakley, M. S. Dewey, S. N. Dzhosyuk, R. Golub, G. L. Greene, K. Habicht, S. K. Lamoreaux, C. E. H. Mattoni, D. N. McKinsey, F. E. Wietfeldt, and J. M. Doyle. (2000). p. 62. "Magnetic Trapping of Ultracold Neutrons," Physical Review C. 63. P. R. Huffman, C. R. Brome, J. S. Butterworth, K. J. Coakley, M. S. Dewey, S. N. Dzhosyuk, R. Golub, G. L. Greene, K. Habicht, S. K. Lamoreaux, C. E. H. Mattoni, D. N. McKinsey, F. E. Wietfeldt, and J. M. Doyle. (2001). p. 055502. "Development of a Long Wavelength Neutron Monochromator for use with Superthermal Production of Ultracold Neutrons," Physica B. 344. C. E. H. Mattoni, C. P. Adams, K. J. Alvine, S. N. Dzhosyuk, R. Golub, K. Habicht, P. R. Huffman, E. Korobkina, D. N. McKinsey, L. Yang, H. Zabel, and J. M. Doyle.. (2004). p. 343. "Precision neutron interferometric measurement of the n-d coherent neutron scattering length and consequences for models of three-nucleon forces," Physical Review Letters. 2003. T. C. Black, P. R. Huffman, D. L. Jacobson, W. M. Snow, K. Schoen, M. Arif, H. Kaiser, S. K. Lamoreaux, and S. A. Werner. (90). p. 192502. "Precision neutron interferometric measurements of the n-H and n-D coherent neutron scattering lengths," Physical Review C. 67. K. Schoen, H. Kaiser, S. A. Werner, M. Arif, P. R. Huffman, D. L. Jacobson, T. C. Black, W. M. Snow, and S. K. Lamoreaux. (2003). p. 044005. "The Time Dependence of Liquid Helium Fluorescence," Physical Review A. 67. D. N. McKinsey, C. R. Brome, S. N. Dzhosyuk, R. Golub, K. Habicht, P. R. Huffman, E. Korobkina, S. K. Lamoreaux, C. E. H. Mattoni, A. K. Thompson, L. Yang, and J. M. Doyle. (2003). p. 062716. "An experiment to search for parity-conserving time reversal invariance using epithermal neutrons from the Spallation Neutron Source," Astrophysics, Symmetries, and Applied Physics and Spallation Neutron Sources. P. R. Huffman. World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., edited by P. E. Koehler, R. C. Haight, C. R. Gould, and T. E. Valentine. (2002). p. 156. "Progress Towards Measurement of the Neutron Lifetime Using Magnetically Trapped Ultracold Neutrons," P. R. Huffman, K. J. Coakley, S. N. Dzhosyuk, R. Golub, E. Korobkina, S. K. Lamoreaux, C. E. H. Mattoni, D. N. McKinsey, A. K. Thompson, G. L. Yang, L. Yang, and J. M. Doyle. Mattes Verlag Heidelberg, edited by H. Abele and D. Mund. (2003). p. 97. "The Fundamental Neutron Physics Facilities at NIST," APPLICATION OF ACCELERATORS IN RESEARCH AND INDUSTRY: Seventeenth International Conference on the Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry. 680. P. R. Huffman, M. Arif, M. S. Dewey, T. R. Gentile, D. M. Gilliam, D. L. Jacobson, J. S. Nico, and A. K. Thompson. AIP Conference Proceedings, edited by Jerome L. Duggan. (2003). p. 275. "Ultracold Neutrons," McGraw-Hill Yearbook of Science and Technology. P. R. Huffman. The McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., New York, (2002). p. 394.