The neutron is a cornerstone in our depiction of the visible universe. Despite the neutron zero-net electric charge, the asymmetric distribution of the positively- (up) and negatively-charged (down) ...quarks, a result of the complex quark-gluon dynamics, lead to a negative value for its squared charge radius, Formula: see text. The precise measurement of the neutron's charge radius thus emerges as an essential part of unraveling its structure. Here we report on a Formula: see text measurement, based on the extraction of the neutron electric form factor, Formula: see text, at low four-momentum transfer squared (Q
) by exploiting the long known connection between the N → Δ quadrupole transitions and the neutron electric form factor. Our result, Formula: see text, addresses long standing unresolved discrepancies in the Formula: see text determination. The dynamics of the strong nuclear force can be viewed through the precise picture of the neutron's constituent distributions that result into the non-zero Formula: see text value.
The proton is one of the main building blocks of all visible matter in the Universe
. Among its intrinsic properties are its electric charge, mass and spin
. These properties emerge from the complex ...dynamics of its fundamental constituents-quarks and gluons-described by the theory of quantum chromodynamics
. The electric charge and spin of protons, which are shared among the quarks, have been investigated previously using electron scattering
. An example is the highly precise measurement of the electric charge radius of the proton
. By contrast, little is known about the inner mass density of the proton, which is dominated by the energy carried by gluons. Gluons are hard to access using electron scattering because they do not carry an electromagnetic charge. Here we investigated the gravitational density of gluons using a small colour dipole, through the threshold photoproduction of the J/ψ particle. We determined the gluonic gravitational form factors of the proton
from our measurement. We used a variety of models
and determined, in all cases, a mass radius that is notably smaller than the electric charge radius. In some, but not all cases, depending on the model, the determined radius agrees well with first-principle predictions from lattice quantum chromodynamics
. This work paves the way for a deeper understanding of the salient role of gluons in providing gravitational mass to visible matter.
We have determined the proton and the neutron charge radii from a global analysis of the proton and the neutron elastic form factors, after first performing a flavor decomposition of these form ...factors under charge symmetry in the light cone frame formulation. We then extracted the transverse mean-square radii of the flavor dependent quark distributions. In turn, these are related in a model-independent way to the proton and neutron charge radii but allow us to take into account motion effects of the recoiling nucleon for data at finite but high momentum transfer. In the proton case we find
⟨
r
p
⟩
=
0.852
±
0
.
002
(
stat
.
)
±
0
.
009
(
syst
.
)
(
fm
)
, consistent with the proton charge radius obtained from muonic hydrogen spectroscopy
1
,
2
. The current method improves on the precision of the
⟨
r
p
⟩
extraction based on the form factor measurements. Furthermore, we find no discrepancy in the
⟨
r
p
⟩
determination among the different electron scattering measurements, all of which, utilizing the current method of extraction, result in a value that is consistent with the smallest
⟨
r
p
⟩
extraction from the electron scattering measurements
3
. Concerning the neutron case, past results relied solely on the neutron-electron scattering length measurements, which suffer from an underestimation of underlying systematic uncertainties inherent to the extraction technique. Utilizing the present method we have performed the first extraction of the neutron charge radius based on nucleon form factor data, and we find
⟨
r
n
2
⟩
=
-
0.122
±
0
.
004
(
stat
.
)
±
0
.
010
(
syst
.
)
(
fm
2
)
.
The visible world is founded on the proton, the only composite building block of matter that is stable in nature. Consequently, understanding the formation of matter relies on explaining the dynamics ...and the properties of the proton's bound state. A fundamental property of the proton involves the response of the system to an external electromagnetic field. It is characterized by the electromagnetic polarizabilities
that describe how easily the charge and magnetization distributions inside the system are distorted by the electromagnetic field. Moreover, the generalized polarizabilities
map out the resulting deformation of the densities in a proton subject to an electromagnetic field. They disclose essential information about the underlying system dynamics and provide a key for decoding the proton structure in terms of the theory of the strong interaction that binds its elementary quark and gluon constituents. Of particular interest is a puzzle in the electric generalized polarizability of the proton that remains unresolved for two decades
. Here we report measurements of the proton's electromagnetic generalized polarizabilities at low four-momentum transfer squared. We show evidence of an anomaly to the behaviour of the proton's electric generalized polarizability that contradicts the predictions of nuclear theory and derive its signature in the spatial distribution of the induced polarization in the proton. The reported measurements suggest the presence of a new, not-yet-understood dynamical mechanism in the proton and present notable challenges to the nuclear theory.
.
We report on new measurements of the electric Generalized Polarizability (GP) of the proton
α
E
in a kinematic region where a puzzling dependence on momentum transfer has been observed, and we have ...found that
α
E
=
(
5
.
3
±
0
.
6
s
t
a
t
±
1
.
3
s
y
s
)
10
-
4
fm
3
at
Q
2
=
0
.
20
(GeV/
c
)
2
. The new measurements, when considered along with the rest of the world data, suggest that
α
E
can be described by either a local plateau or by an enhancement in the region
Q
2
=
0
.
20
(GeV/
c
)
2
to 0.33 (GeV/
c
)
2
. The experiment also provides the first measurement of the Coulomb quadrupole amplitude in the
N
→
Δ
transition through the exploration of the
p
(
e
,
e
p
)
γ
reaction. The new measurement gives
C
M
R
=
(
-
4
.
4
±
0
.
8
s
t
a
t
±
0
.
6
s
y
s
)
%
at
Q
2
=
0
.
20
(GeV/
c
)
2
and is consistent with the results from the pion electroproduction world data. It has been obtained using a completely different extraction method, and therefore represents a strong validation test of the world data model uncertainties.
The strong nuclear interaction is probed at short-distance and high-momenta using new measurements of the $^{12}$C$(e,e'p)$ and $^{12}$C$(e,e'pn)$ reactions, at high-$Q^2$ and $x_B>1$. The data span ...a missing-momentum range of 300-850 MeV/c and is predominantly sensitive to the dominant proton-neutron short-range correlated (SRC) pairs and complements previous $^{12}$C$(e,e'pp)$ measurements. The data are well reproduced by theoretical calculations using the Generalized Contact Formalism with both chiral and phenomenological nucleon-nucleon ($NN$) interaction models. This agreement, observed here for the first time, suggests that the measured high missing-momentum protons up to $850$ MeV/c belonged to SRC pairs. The measured $^{12}$C$(e,e'pn)$ / $^{12}$C$(e,e'p)$ ratio is consistent with a decrease in the fraction of proton-neutron SRC pairs with increasing missing-momentum. This confirms the transition from an isospin-dependent tensor $NN$ interaction at $\sim 400$ MeV/c to an isospin-independent scalar interaction at high-momentum around $\sim 800$ MeV/c.
We present new precision measurements of the elastic electron-proton scattering cross section for momentum transfer (Q^{2}) up to 15.75 (GeV/c)^{2}. Combined with existing data, these provide an ...improved extraction of the proton magnetic form factor at high Q^{2} and double the range over which a longitudinal or transverse separation of the cross section can be performed. The difference between our results and polarization data agrees with that observed at lower Q^{2} and attributed to hard two-photon exchange (TPE) effects, extending to 8 (GeV/c)^{2} the range of Q^{2} for which a discrepancy is established at >95% confidence. We use the discrepancy to quantify the size of TPE contributions needed to explain the cross section at high Q^{2}.
Positron beams, both polarized and unpolarized, are identified as important ingredients for the experimental programs at the next generation of lepton accelerators. In the context of the hadronic ...physics program at Jefferson Lab (JLab), positron beams are complementary, even essential, tools for a precise understanding of the electromagnetic structure of nucleons and nuclei, in both the elastic and deep-inelastic regimes. For instance, elastic scattering of polarized and unpolarized electrons and positrons from the nucleon enables a model independent determination of its electromagnetic form factors. Also, the deeply-virtual scattering of polarized and unpolarized electrons and positrons allows unambiguous separation of the different contributions to the cross section of the lepto-production of photons and of lepton-pairs, enabling an accurate determination of the nucleons and nuclei generalized parton distributions, and providing an access to the gravitational form factors of the energy-momentum tensor. Furthermore, positron beams offer the possibility of alternative tests of the Standard Model of particle physics through the search of a dark photon, the precise measurement of electroweak couplings, and the investigation of charged lepton flavor violation. This document discusses the perspectives of an experimental program with high duty-cycle positron beams at JLab.
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