We have performed a novel comparison between electron-beam polarimeters based on Møller and Compton scattering. A sequence of electron-beam polarization measurements were performed at low beam ...currents (<5 μA) during the Qweak experiment in Hall-C at Jefferson Lab. These low current measurements were bracketed by the regular high current (180 μA) operation of the Compton polarimeter. All measurements were found to be consistent within experimental uncertainties of 1% or less, demonstrating that electron polarization does not depend significantly on the beam current. This result lends confidence to the common practice of applying Møller measurements made at low beam currents to physics experiments performed at higher beam currents. The agreement between two polarimetry techniques based on independent physical processes sets an important benchmark for future precision asymmetry measurements that require sub-1% precision in polarimetry.
We report on the highest precision yet achieved in the measurement of the polarization of a low-energy, O(1GeV) , continuous-wave (CW) electron beam, accomplished using a new polarimeter based on ...electron-photon scattering, in Hall C at Jefferson Lab. A number of technical innovations were necessary, including a novel method for precise control of the laser polarization in a cavity and a novel diamond microstrip detector that was able to capture most of the spectrum of scattered electrons. The data analysis technique exploited track finding, the high granularity of the detector, and its large acceptance. The polarization of the 180−μA , 1.16-GeV electron beam was measured with a statistical precision of <1% per hour and a systematic uncertainty of 0.59%. This exceeds the level of precision required by the Qweak experiment, a measurement of the weak vector charge of the proton. Proposed future low-energy experiments require polarization uncertainty <0.4% , and this result represents an important demonstration of that possibility. This measurement is the first use of diamond detectors for particle tracking in an experiment. It demonstrates the stable operation of a diamond-based tracking detector in a high radiation environment, for two years.
The modification of structure functions in nuclei (the EMC effect) has been the focus of intense experimental and theoretical study since the original observation in 1983. The EMC effect ...unequivocally demonstrates that quark distributions in nuclei are not simply the incoherent sum of the nucleon quark distributions. However, progress in understanding the root cause of these modifications has been hampered by the complexity of nuclear structure, making it difficult to disentangle the 'conventional' nuclear effects of Fermi motion and binding from true medium modifications to nucleon structure. Experiment E03-103 at Jefferson Lab made measurements of nuclear structure function ratios from few-body nuclei (3He and 4He) to deuterium, where the nuclear structure is well known, and for a range of nuclei, A = 3 to 197, at large x, where effects from Fermi motion and binding dominate.
The surface tensions of melts in the system CaO-FeO-SiO2 have been measured in the temperature range 1573 to 1708 K using the hollow cylinder technique. The iron oxide content was maintained constant ...at 30 wt pct and the CaO/SiO2 wt pct ratio was varied in the range 0.43 to 1.5. Surface tension increases with increasing basicity and with decreasing temperature. The data were used to test published correlations of slag foaming indexes with surface tension and viscosity. Foam life increases with increasing viscosity and with decreasing surface tension.
Large experimental programmes in the fields of nuclear and particle physics search for evidence of physics beyond that explained by current theories. The observation of the Higgs boson completed the ...set of particles predicted by the standard model, which currently provides the best description of fundamental particles and forces. However, this theory's limitations include a failure to predict fundamental parameters, such as the mass of the Higgs boson, and the inability to account for dark matter and energy, gravity, and the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Universe, among other phenomena. These limitations have inspired searches for physics beyond the standard model in the post-Higgs era through the direct production of additional particles at high-energy accelerators, which have so far been unsuccessful. Examples include searches for supersymmetric particles, which connect bosons (integer-spin particles) with fermions (half-integer-spin particles), and for leptoquarks, which mix the fundamental quarks with leptons. Alternatively, indirect searches using precise measurements of well predicted standard-model observables allow highly targeted alternative tests for physics beyond the standard model because they can reach mass and energy scales beyond those directly accessible by today's high-energy accelerators. Such an indirect search aims to determine the weak charge of the proton, which defines the strength of the proton's interaction with other particles via the well known neutral electroweak force. Because parity symmetry (invariance under the spatial inversion (x, y, z) → (-x, -y, -z)) is violated only in the weak interaction, it provides a tool with which to isolate the weak interaction and thus to measure the proton's weak charge
. Here we report the value 0.0719 ± 0.0045, where the uncertainty is one standard deviation, derived from our measured parity-violating asymmetry in the scattering of polarized electrons on protons, which is -226.5 ± 9.3 parts per billion (the uncertainty is one standard deviation). Our value for the proton's weak charge is in excellent agreement with the standard model
and sets multi-teraelectronvolt-scale constraints on any semi-leptonic parity-violating physics not described within the standard model. Our results show that precision parity-violating measurements enable searches for physics beyond the standard model that can compete with direct searches at high-energy accelerators and, together with astronomical observations, can provide fertile approaches to probing higher mass scales.
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