Commissioning of the NPDGamma detector array: Counting statistics in current mode operation and parity violation in the capture of cold neutrons on B4C and Al-27

NPDGamma gamma-ray detector has been built to measure, with high accuracy, the size of the small parity-violating asymmetry in the angular distribution of gamma rays from the capture of polarized cold neutrons by protons. The high cold neutron flux at the Los Alamos Neutron Scattering Center (LANSCE) spallation neutron source and control of systematic errors require the use of current mode detection with vacuum photodiodes and low-noise solid-state preamplifiers. We show that the detector array operates at counting statistics and that the asymmetries due to B4C and Al-27 are zero to within 2 x 10(-6) and 7 x 10(-7), respectively. Boron and aluminum are used throughout the experiment. The results presented here are preliminary.