Study of Electromagnetic Structure of Light Pseudoscalar Mesons via the Primakoff Effect

North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, Greensboro NC

Investigators

Abstract

This proposal requests funds to support the North Carolina A&T Experimental Nuclear Physics groups students and senior personnel to work on the PrimEx experiment. Our group is currently playing a leading role in the PrimEx collaboration to develop and construct a state-of-the-art experimental setup, to perform a precise measurement of the neutral pion lifetime at Jefferson Laboratory (JLab). Because the neutral pions are the lightest two quark system in nature, the prediction of theory is the most accurate and direct for this process. The present experimental knowledge of this decay rate is at the 10% level, which is about one order of magnitude poorer than the theoretical uncertainties. The PrimEx experiment at JLab, will significantly improve the experimental uncertainties associated with all the past experiments. This work will involve three undergraduate and three graduate students to work and to be trained on this project. It will provide them with unique research opportunities in experimental nuclear physics, and therefore will have a strong impact on their training and education. The program is highly interdisciplinary and includes work with both hardware and software (i.e., electronics, nuclear detector systems, computer simulation, and data analysis). It will allow them to work in a state-of-the-art facility and interact with scientists from other nationally recognized universities. Thus, it can be very effective in attracting African Americans and other underrepresented groups to study toward advanced degrees in physics.