A meta-analysis of neutron lifetime measurements
  We calculated the median as well as weighted mean central estimates for the
neutron lifetime, from a subset of measurements compiled in the 2019 update of
the Particle Data Group (PDG). We then reconstruct the error distributions for
the residuals using three different central estimates and then check for
consistency with a Gaussian distribution. We find that although the error
distributions using the weighted mean as well as median estimate are consistent
with a Gaussian distribution, the Student's $t$ and Cauchy distribution provide
a better fit. This median statistic estimate of the neutron lifetime from these
measurements is given by $881.5 \pm 0.47$ seconds. This can be used as an
alternate estimate of the neutron lifetime. We also note that the discrepancy
between beam and bottle-based measurements using median statistics of the
neutron lifetime persists with a significance between 4-8$\sigma$, depending on
which combination of measurements is used.
