First production of ultracold neutrons at TRIUMF:
In fall 2017, the Japanese-Canadian TUCAN (TRIUMF Ultra Cold Advanced Neutron source) collaboration succeeded for the first time in producing ultracold neutrons (UCN). This was a major milestone towards the search for the elusive neutron electric dipole moment (nEDM). UCN move so slowly, about 5 meters per second compared to about 500 meters per second for air molecules, and with such low energy that they can be contained and observed. Thus, UCN are ideal for determining the nEDM, which TUCAN aims to measure with the highest-ever precision. The nEDM is predicted to be vanishingly small, but if it is measured to be larger than expected, the TUCAN results could aid in solving a key cosmic puzzle: why there is much more matter than antimatter in the universe.