Investigations in Intermediate Energy Physics

North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, Greensboro NC

Investigators

Abstract

It is now a well-established fact that nucleons, protons and neutrons, are made up of more elementary particles called quarks. The measurements that will be carried out within this project will lead to a better understanding of nucleon structure and a better understanding of the effects of bound quarks moving at relativistic velocities. In particular, the proposed measurements will be used to extract detailed radial charge distributions of the proton and neutron, and will lead to a better understanding of how to interpret data from electron scattering experiments on nuclei. This project will train and support both undergraduate and graduate students, most of whom are minority students. The program is highly interdisciplinary. It includes work with both hardware and software i.e., electronics, nuclear detector systems, optics, computer simulation, and data analysis. Students engaged in the program will work in a state-of-the-art facility and interact with scientists from other nationally recognized universities. These research activities will significantly impact the training of the students, preparing them for entering the STEM workforce of the 21st century. This grant is to support research activities at North Carolina A&T State University on two programs. The first is the nucleon Form Factors (FF) program in Hall A at Jefferson Lab which is dedicated to the measurement of the neutron electromagnetic form factor ratio in double polarized, quasi-elastic scattering on 3He, and separately the neutron magnetic form factor in quasi-elastic scattering off the deuteron, both at high momentum transfer. The second is to measure the neutron Electric Form Factor at high momentum transfer from a deuterium target via recoil polarimetry in Hall C at Jefferson Lab. Elastic electromagnetic Form factors of the nucleon (proton or neutron) provide key information on the structure and the composition nature, of the nucleon, and the dynamics of quarks and gluons. For the FF program the group will build a photon detector array for the Gas Ring Imaging Cherenkov counter. For the experiment of Hall C, the group is building the polarimeter veto counters and the Delta-E detector arrays that identify the recoil proton from the neutron scattering events in the polarimeter analyzer.