We report a precision measurement of the parity-violating asymmetry APV in the elastic scattering of longitudinally polarized electrons from 208Pb. We measure APV= 550 ± 16 (stat) ±8 (syst) parts per ...billion, leading to an extraction of the neutral weak form factor FW(Q2= 0.00616 GeV2) = 0.368 ± 0.013. Combined with our previous measurement, the extracted neutron skin thickness is Rn-Rp= 0.283 ± 0.071 fm. The result also yields the first significant direct measurement of the interior weak density of 208Pb: ρ$^0_W$ = -0.0796 ± 0.0036(exp) ± 0.0013(theo) fm-3 leading to the interior baryon density ρ$^0_b$ = 0.1480 ± 0.0036(exp) ± 0.0013(theo) fm-3. Finally, the measurement accurately constrains the density dependence of the symmetry energy of nuclear matter near saturation density, with implications for the size and composition of neutron stars.
This report describes the physics case, the resulting detector requirements, and the evolving detector concepts for the experimental program at the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). The EIC will be a ...powerful new high-luminosity facility in the United States with the capability to collide high-energy electron beams with high-energy proton and ion beams, providing access to those regions in the nucleon and nuclei where their structure is dominated by gluons. Moreover, polarized beams in the EIC will give unprecedented access to the spatial and spin structure of the proton, neutron, and light ions. The studies leading to this document were commissioned and organized by the EIC User Group with the objective of advancing the state and detail of the physics program and developing detector concepts that meet the emerging requirements in preparation for the realization of the EIC. The effort aims to provide the basis for further development of concepts for experimental equipment best suited for the science needs, including the importance of two complementary detectors and interaction regions. This report consists of three volumes. Volume I is an executive summary of our findings and developed concepts. In Volume II we describe studies of a wide range of physics measurements and the emerging requirements on detector acceptance and performance. Volume III discusses general-purpose detector concepts and the underlying technologies to meet the physics requirements. These considerations will form the basis for a world-class experimental program that aims to increase our understanding of the fundamental structure of all visible matter
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}.
The three-dimensional structure of nucleons (protons and neutrons) is embedded in so-called generalized parton distributions, which are accessible from deeply virtual Compton scattering. In this ...process, a high-energy electron is scattered off a nucleon by exchanging a virtual photon. Then, a highly energetic real photon is emitted from one of the quarks inside the nucleon, which carries information on the quark’s transverse position and longitudinal momentum. By measuring the cross-section of deeply virtual Compton scattering, Compton form factors related to the generalized parton distributions can be extracted. Here, we report the observation of unpolarized deeply virtual Compton scattering off a deuterium target. From the measured photon-electroproduction cross-sections, we have extracted the cross-section of a quasifree neutron and a coherent deuteron. Due to the approximate isospin symmetry of quantum chromodynamics, we can determine the contributions from the different quark flavours to the helicity-conserved Compton form factors by combining our measurements with previous ones probing the proton’s internal structure. These results advance our understanding of the description of the nucleon structure, which is important to solve the proton spin puzzle.The internal structure of the neutron has now been probed by highly energetic photons scattering off it. Combined with previous results for protons, these measurements reveal the contributions of quark flavours to the nucleon structure.
We present deeply virtual π^{0} electroproduction cross-section measurements at x_{B}=0.36 and three different Q^{2} values ranging from 1.5 to 2 GeV^{2}, obtained from Jefferson Lab Hall A ...experiment E07-007. The Rosenbluth technique is used to separate the longitudinal and transverse responses. Results demonstrate that the cross section is dominated by its transverse component and, thus, is far from the asymptotic limit predicted by perturbative quantum chromodynamics. Nonetheless, an indication of a nonzero longitudinal contribution is provided by the measured interference term σ_{LT}. Results are compared with several models based on the leading-twist approach of generalized parton distributions (GPDs). In particular, a fair agreement is obtained with models in which the scattering amplitude includes convolution terms of chiral-odd (transversity) GPDs of the nucleon with the twist-3 pion distribution amplitude. This experiment, together with previous extensive unseparated measurements, provides strong support to the exciting idea that transversity GPDs can be accessed via neutral pion electroproduction in the high-Q^{2} regime.
A method to calibrate measurement instruments through the fulfillment of physical laws is described. This method is particularly well suited to determine and/or improve magnetic spectrometer optics ...databases as well as to establish the best resolution achievable with them. This method was applied to obtain the best resolution achievable in the excitation and binding energy spectra of several hypernuclei produced in the experiment E94-107 performed at JLab, allowing us to obtain sub-MeV resolutions.
An
n
n
Λ
, which consists of two neutrons and a Lambda hyperon, is a multi-baryon system with no charge. Studying the
n
n
Λ
state would provide information about the
Λ
n
interaction which has not ...been directly measured by a scattering experiment. The experiment (E12-17-003) was performed in order to search for the
n
n
Λ
state at Jefferson Lab. The
n
n
Λ
is expected to be produced by the
(
e
,
e
′
K
+
)
reaction, which has sensitivity to both bound and resonance states if the natural width of the
n
n
Λ
is narrow enough to be observed as a peak. The experiment used gas targets of hydrogen and tritium for mass calibration and the
n
n
Λ
production, respectively. The mass calibration with
H
(
e
,
e
′
K
+
)
Λ
/
Σ
0
reactions gave the mass resolution of the
Λ
and
Σ
0
each 3.5
MeV
/
c
2
FWHM, for the elementary reaction. A spectrum of
3
H
(
e
,
e
′
K
+
)
X
was obtained, and a simple model with a
Λ
n
final state interaction was applied to reproduce the spectrum.
In this paper, we present deeply virtual $\pi^0$ electroproduction cross-section measurements at $x_B$=0.36 and three different $Q^2$ values ranging from 1.5 to 2 GeV$^2$, obtained from Jefferson Lab ...Hall A experiment E07-007. The Rosenbluth technique is used to separate the longitudinal and transverse responses. Results demonstrate that the cross section is dominated by its transverse component and, thus, is far from the asymptotic limit predicted by perturbative quantum chromodynamics. Nonetheless, an indication of a nonzero longitudinal contribution is provided by the measured interference term $\sigma_{LT}$. Results are compared with several models based on the leading-twist approach of generalized parton distributions (GPDs). In particular, a fair agreement is obtained with models in which the scattering amplitude includes convolution terms of chiral-odd (transversity) GPDs of the nucleon with the twist-3 pion distribution amplitude. Finally, this experiment, together with previous extensive unseparated measurements, provides strong support to the exciting idea that transversity GPDs can be accessed via neutral pion electroproduction in the high-Q2 regime.
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