Measurement of the parity-violating triton emission asymmetry in the reaction 6Li(n, α)3H with polarized cold neutrons

We describe measurements of the parity-violating (P-odd) triton emission asymmetry coefficient a(P-odd) in the Li-6(n, alpha)H-3 reaction with polarized cold neutrons. Experiments were carried out at the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (Gatchina, Russia) and at the Institut Laue-Langevin (Grenoble, France). We employed an ionisation chamber in a configuration allowing us to suppress the left-right asymmetry well below 10(-8). An additional test for a false asymmetry due to eventual target impurities (zero test) resulted in a(0-test) = (0.0 +/- 0.5) x 10(-8). As final result of this series of experiments we obtained aP-odd = (-8.8 +/- 2.1) x 10(-8).