We perform a systematic study of the α-particle excitation from its ground state 0_{1}^{+} to the 0_{2}^{+} resonance. The so-called monopole transition form factor is investigated via an electron ...scattering experiment in a broad Q^{2} range (from 0.5 to 5.0 fm^{-2}). The precision of the new data dramatically supersedes that of older sets of data, each covering only a portion of the Q^{2} range. The new data allow the determination of two coefficients in a low-momentum expansion, leading to a new puzzle. By confronting experiment to state-of-the-art theoretical calculations, we observe that modern nuclear forces, including those derived within chiral effective field theory that are well tested on a variety of observables, fail to reproduce the excitation of the α particle.
We report on a comprehensive reinterpretation of the existing cross-section data for elastic electron-proton scattering obtained by the initial-state radiation technique, resulting in a significantly ...improved accuracy of the extracted proton charge radius. By refining the external energy corrections we have achieved an outstanding description of the radiative tail, essential for a detailed investigation of the proton finite-size effects on the measured cross sections. This development, together with a novel framework for determining the radius, based on a regression analysis of the cross sections employing a polynomial model for the form factor, led us to a new value for the charge radius, which is
(
0.878
±
0
.
011
stat
.
±
0
.
031
sys
.
±
0
.
002
mod
.
)
fm
Virtual Compton scattering on the proton has been investigated at three yet unexplored values of the four-momentum transfer Q2: 0.10, 0.20, and 0.45 GeV2, at the Mainz Microtron. Fits performed ...using either the low-energy theorem or dispersion relations allowed the extraction of the structure functions PLL−PTT/ε and PLT, as well as the electric and magnetic generalized polarizabilities αE1(Q2) and βM1(Q2). These new results show a smooth and rapid falloff of αE1(Q2), in contrast to previous measurements at Q2=0.33 GeV2, and provide for the first time a precise mapping of βM1(Q2) in the low-Q2 region.
We report the measurement of the ratio of polarization-transfer components, Px/Pz, in the H2(e→,e′p→)n reaction at low and high missing momenta, in search of differences between free and bound ...protons. The observed deviation of Px/Pz from that of a free proton, which is similar to that observed in 4He, indicates that the effect in nuclei is a function of the virtuality of the knock-out proton and the missing momentum direction, but not
the average nuclear density. There is a general agreement between the data and calculations, which assume free proton form factors, however, the measurements are consistently about 10% higher.
We report the first measurements of the transverse (Px and Py) and longitudinal (Pz) components of the polarization transfer to a bound proton in the deuteron via the H2(e→,e′p→) reaction, over a ...wide range of missing momentum. A precise determination of the electron beam polarization reduces the systematic uncertainties on the individual components to a level that enables a detailed comparison to a state-of-the-art calculation of the deuteron using free-proton electromagnetic form factors. We observe very good agreement between the measured and the calculated Px/Pz ratios, but deviations of the individual components. Our results cannot be explained by medium modified electromagnetic form factors. They point to an incomplete description of the nuclear reaction mechanism in the calculation.
Radiative corrections to elastic scattering represent an important part of the interpretation of electron-induced nuclear reactions at small energy transfers, where they represent a dominant part of ...the background. Here we present and validate a new event generator for simulating QED radiative processes in electron-carbon scattering that exactly calculates the coherent sum of the Bethe-Heitler amplitudes for the leading diagrams. We demonstrate that the generator describes the shape of the radiative tail of an elastic peak with a precision better than
10
%
over the whole energy range of the scattered electrons and can thus be reliably employed in the analyses of electron scattering experiments for more precise extraction of inelastic cross-sections.
We present measurements of the electron helicity asymmetry in quasi-elastic proton knockout from 2H and 12C nuclei by polarized electrons. This asymmetry depends on the fifth structure function, is ...antisymmetric with respect to the scattering plane, and vanishes in the absence of final-state interactions, and thus it provides a sensitive tool for their study. Our kinematics cover the full range in off-coplanarity angle ϕpq, with a polar angle θpq coverage up to about 8°. The missing energy resolution enabled us to determine the asymmetries for knock-out resulting in different states of the residual 11B system. We find that the helicity asymmetry for p-shell knockout from 12C depends on the final state of the residual system and is relatively large (up to ≈0.16), especially at low missing momentum. It is considerably smaller (up to ≈0.01) for s-shell knockout from both 12C and 2H. The data for 2H are in very good agreement with theoretical calculations, while the predictions for 12C exhibit differences with respect to the data.
.
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.
We report measurements of the induced polarization P→ of protons knocked out from 2H and 12C via the A(e,e′p→) reaction. We have studied the dependence of P→ on two kinematic variables: the missing ...momentum pmiss and the “off-coplanarity” angle ϕpq between the scattering and reaction planes. For the full 360° range in ϕpq, both the normal (Py) and, for the first time, the transverse (Px) components of the induced polarization were measured with respect to the coordinate system associated with the scattering plane. Px vanishes in coplanar kinematics, however in non-coplanar kinematics, it is on the same scale as Py.
We find that the dependence on ϕpq is sine-like for Px and cosine-like for Py. For carbon, the magnitude of the induced polarization is especially large when protons are knocked out from the p3/2 shell at very small pmiss. For the deuteron, the induced polarization is near zero at small |pmiss|, and its magnitude increases with |pmiss|. For both nuclei such behavior is reproduced qualitatively by theoretical results, driven largely by the spin-orbit part of the final-state interactions. However, for both nuclei, sizeable discrepancies exist between experiment and theory.
A comparison between polarization-transfer to a bound proton in quasi-free kinematics by the A(e→,e′p→) knockout reaction and that in elastic scattering off a free proton can provide information on ...the characteristics of the bound proton. In the past the reported measurements have been compared to those of a free proton with zero initial momentum. We introduce, for the first time, expressions for the polarization-transfer components when the proton is initially in motion and compare them to the 2H data measured at the Mainz Microtron (MAMI). We show the ratios of the transverse (Px) and longitudinal (Pz) components of the polarization transfer in H2(e→,e′p→)n, to those of elastic scattering off a “moving proton”, assuming the proton's initial (Fermi-motion) momentum equals the negative missing momentum in the measured reaction. We found that the correction due to the proton motion is up to 20% at high missing momentum. However the effect on the double ratio (Px/Pz)A(Px/Pz)H1 is largely canceled out, as shown for both 2H and 12C data. This implies that the difference between the resting- and the moving-proton kinematics is not the primary cause for the deviations between quasi-elastic and elastic scattering reported previously.
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