IRES: Studying the Nucleon Structure in Orsay, France

University Of Connecticut, Storrs CT

Investigators

Abstract

This three-year International Research Experience for Students (IRES) project will annually send six U.S. students (two graduate students and four undergraduates) for eight weeks to conduct research in the hadron physics group at the Institut de Physique Nucléaire d'Orsay (IPN- Orsay) in Orsay, France. The research projects will come from a wide range of subjects in nuclear physics including detector development, data analysis and software development. A particular emphasis will be made to recruit women and minority participants from institutions in New England and Southern Virginia. This program will enable the students to develop collaborative thinking and communication skills in an international working environment, establish a global network with foreign scientists, and gain insight into a future career. This program emerges from the beliefs that international collaboration will advance scholarship by stimulating global perspectives, and that students must be prepared for their careers in the increasingly globally engaged working environment of the future. A major focus of modern nuclear physics concerns how protons, neutrons, and atomic nuclei are made of quarks and gluons, the fundamental degrees of freedom of quantum chromodynamics. Modern studies of the nucleon structure are conducted at large-scale nuclear research facilities by large collaborations with a significant international component. This project supports US student participation in the ongoing research activities of the hadron physics group at the Institut de Physique Nucléaire d?Orsay (IPN- Orsay). The planned projects include (1) detection efficiency studies of a neutron detector, (2) development of a nuclear fragment detector, (3) studies of the particle channeling via bent crystals, (4) performance studies of MWPC (Multi-Wire Proportional Chamber) and GEM (Gas Electron Multiplier) detectors, (5) performance studies of diamond detectors, and (6) software development of 3-D modeling of the nucleon structure. US student participation in these projects supports the development of a globally trained competitive workforce at the forefront of nuclear physics.