The European Spallation Source (ESS), presently under construction in Lund, Sweden, is a multidisciplinary international laboratory that, once completed at full specifications, will operate the world's most powerful pulsed neutron source. Supported by a 3 M Euro Research and Innovation Action within the European Union Horizon 2020 program, a design study (HighNESS) is now underway to develop a second neutron source located below the spallation target. Compared to the first source, which is located above the spallation target and designed for high cold and thermal brightness, the new source is being optimized to deliver higher intensity and a shift to longer wavelengths in the spectral regions of cold neutrons (CNs) (2 to 20 & Aring;), very cold neutrons (VCNs) (10 to 120 & Aring;), and ultracold neutrons (UCNs) (> 500 & Aring;). The second source consists of a large liquid deuterium moderator to deliver CNs and serve secondary VCN and UCN sources, for which different options are under study. These new sources will boost several areas of condensed matter research and will provide unique opportunities in fundamental physics. The HighNESS project is now entering its last year, and we are working toward the Conceptual Design Report of the ESS upgrade. In this paper, results obtained in the first 2 years, ongoing developments, and future perspectives are described.

A key aim of the HighNESS project for the European Spallation Source is to enable cutting-edge particle physics experiments. This volume presents a conceptual design report for the NNBAR experiment. NNBAR would exploit a new cold lower moderator to make the first search in over thirty years for free neutrons converting to anti-neutrons. The observation of such a baryon-number-violating signature would be of fundamental significance and tackle open questions in modern physics, including the origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry. This report shows the design of the beamline, supermirror focusing system, magnetic and radiation shielding, and anti-neutron detector necessary for the experiment. A range of simulation programs are employed to quantify the performance of the experiment and show how background can be suppressed. For a search with full background suppression, a sensitivity improvement of three orders of magnitude is expected, as compared with the previous search. Civil engineering studies for the NNBAR beamline are also shown, as is a costing model for the experiment.

The European Spallation Source, currently under construction in Lund, Sweden, is a multidisciplinary international laboratory. Once completed to full specifications, it will operate the world’s most powerful pulsed neutron source. Supported by a 3 million Euro Research and Innovation Action within the EU Horizon 2020 program, a design study (HighNESS) has been completed to develop a second neutron source located below the spallation target. Compared to the first source, designed for high cold and thermal brightness, the new source has been optimized to deliver higher intensity, and a shift to longer wavelengths in the spectral regions of cold (CN, 2–20 Å), very cold (VCN, 10–120 Å), and ultracold (UCN, >500 Å) neutrons. The second source comprises a large liquid deuterium moderator designed to produce CN and support secondary VCN and UCN sources. Various options have been explored in the proposed designs, aiming for world-leading performance in neutronics. These designs will enable the development of several new instrument concepts and facilitate the implementation of a high-sensitivity neutron-antineutron oscillation experiment (NNBAR). This document serves as the Conceptual Design Report for the HighNESS project, representing its final deliverable.

The European Spallation Source (ESS), presently under construction in Lund, Sweden, is a multidisciplinary international laboratory that will operate the world's most powerful pulsed neutron source. Supported by a 3M Euro Research and Innovation Action within the EU Horizon 2020 program, a design study (HighNESS) is now underway to develop a second neutron source below the spallation target. Compared to the first source, located above the spallation target and designed for high cold and thermal brightness, the new source will provide higher intensity, and a shift to longer wavelengths in the spectral regions of cold (2 /- 20 Å), very cold (VCN, 10 /- 120 Å), and ultra cold (UCN, > 500 Å) neutrons. The core of the second source will consist of a large liquid deuterium moderator to deliver a high flux of cold neutrons and to serve secondary VCN and UCN sources, for which different options are under study. The features of these new sources will boost several areas of condensed matter research and will provide unique opportunities in fundamental physics. Part of the HighNESS project is also dedicated to the development of future instruments that will make use of the new source and will complement the initial suite of instruments in construction at ESS. The HighNESS project started in October 2020. In this paper, the ongoing developments and the results obtained in the first year are described.

The goal of the “Workshop on Very Cold and Ultra Cold Neutron Sources for ESS” was to discuss scientific cases, ideas and possibilities for the implementation of sources of Very Cold and Ultra Cold neutrons at the European Spallation Source. The ESS facility, presently under construction, offers several possibilities for in-pile UCN or VCN sources, in primis thanks to the available space below the spallation target where additional neutron sources can be placed to complement those above the target. Neutron beams can be extracted over a wide angular range with a grid of forty-two beamports with 6° average angular separation, allowing future instruments to be installed which may view either the upper or lower moderator systems. Of greatest interest for fundamental physics is the so-called Large Beamport foreseen for the NNBAR experiment. This beamport is also particularly well suited to feed a UCN source, for which several ideas were presented that employ either superfluid helium or solid deuterium as established neutron converter materials. Concepts for VCN sources make use of novel materials for VCN production and/or advanced reflectors to increase yields in the coldest part of the neutron spectrum from a cryogenic neutron source. In this paper we discuss these ideas and the possible locations of UCN and VCN sources at ESS.