Low-dimensional antiferromagnetic fluctuations in the heavy-fermion paramagnetic ladder compound <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:msub><mml:mi>UTe</mml:mi><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:math>

Inelastic-neutron-scattering measurements were performed on a single crystal of the heavy-fermion paramagnet UTe$_2$ above its superconducting temperature. We confirm presence antiferromagnetic fluctuations with incommensurate wavevector $\mathbf{k}_1=(0,0.57,0)$. A quasielastic signal is found, whose momentum-transfer dependence compatible magnetic moments $\mu\parallel\mathbf{a}$, sine-wave modulation $\mathbf{k}_1$ and in-phase nearest U atoms. Low dimensionality fluctuations, consequence ladder structure, indicated by weak correlations along direction $\mathbf{c}$. These saturate below temperature $T_1^*\simeq15$~K, in possible relation anomalies observed thermodynamic, electrical-transport nuclear-magnetic-resonance measurements. The absence or weakness ferromagnetic our data collected at temperatures down to 2.1 K energy transfers from 0.6 7.5 meV, emphasized. results constitute constraints for models magnetically-mediated superconductivity UTe$_2$.