The Heavy Photon Search experiment took its first data in a 2015 engineering run using a 1.056 GeV, 50 nA electron beam provided by CEBAF at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, ...searching for a prompt, electroproduced dark photon with a mass between 19 and 81 MeV/c2. A search for a resonance in the e+e− invariant mass distribution, using 1.7 days (1170 nb−1) of data, showed no evidence of dark photon decays above the large QED background, confirming earlier searches and demonstrating the full functionality of the experiment. Upper limits on the square of the coupling of the dark photon to the standard model photon are set at the level of 6×10−6. Future runs with higher luminosity will explore new territory.
The heavy photon search experiment (HPS) at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility searches for electroproduced dark photons. We report results from the 2016 engineering run consisting of ...10 608 nb–1 of data for both the prompt and displaced vertex searches. A search for a prompt resonance in the e+e– invariant mass distribution between 39 and 179 MeV showed no evidence of dark photons above the large QED background, limiting the coupling of ε2≳10–5, in agreement with previous searches. The search for displaced vertices showed no evidence of excess signal over background in the masses between 60 and 150 MeV, but had insufficient luminosity to limit canonical heavy photon production. This is the first displaced vertex search result published by HPS. HPS has taken high-luminosity data runs in 2019 and 2021 that will explore new dark photon phase space.
The CLAS12 software framework and event reconstruction Ziegler, V.; Baltzell, N.A.; Bossù, F. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
04/2020, Volume:
959, Issue:
C
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We describe offline event reconstruction for the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer at 12 GeV (CLAS12), including an overview of the offline reconstruction framework and software tools, a ...description of the algorithms developed for the individual detector subsystems, and the overall approach for charged and neutral particle identification. We also present the scheme for data processing and the code management procedures.
Unpolarized and beam-polarized fourfold cross sections (d^{4}σ/dQ^{2}dx_{B}dtdϕ) for the ep→e^{'}p^{'}γ reaction were measured using the CLAS detector and the 5.75-GeV polarized electron beam of the ...Jefferson Lab accelerator, for 110 (Q^{2},x_{B},t) bins over the widest phase space ever explored in the valence-quark region. Several models of generalized parton distributions (GPDs) describe the data well at most of our kinematics. This increases our confidence that we understand the GPD H, expected to be the dominant contributor to these observables. Through a leading-twist extraction of Compton form factors, these results support the model predictions of a larger nucleon size at lower quark-momentum fraction x_{B}.
A determination of the spin and parity of the $\Lambda(1405)$ is presented using photoproduction data from the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab. The reaction $\gamma + p \to K^+ + \Lambda(1405)$ is ...analyzed in the decay channel $\Lambda(1405) \to \Sigma^+ + \pi^-$, where the decay distribution to $\Sigma^+ \pi^-$ and the variation of the $\Sigma^+$ polarization with respect to the $\Lambda(1405)$ polarization direction determines the parity. The $\Lambda(1405)$ is produced, in the energy range $2.55 < W < 2.85$ GeV and for $0.6 < \cos \theta_{K^+} < 0.9$, with polarization $P = 0.45 \pm 0.02 (\text{stat}) \pm 0.07 (\text{syst})$. The analysis shows that the decays are in $S$ wave, with the $\Sigma^+$ polarized such that the $\Lambda(1405)$ has spin-parity $J^P = 1/2^-$, as expected by most theories.
The cross section of the exclusive eta electroproduction reaction ep -> e'p'eta was measured at Jefferson Laboratorywith a 5.75 GeV electron beam and the CLAS detector. Differential cross sections ...d(4) sigma/dtdQ(2) dx(B)d phi(eta) and structure functions sigma(U) = sigma(T) + epsilon sigma(L), sigma(TT), and sigma(LT), as functions of t, were obtained over a wide range of Q(2) and x(B). The eta structure functions are compared with those previously measured for pi(0) at the same kinematics. At low t, both pi(0) and eta are described reasonably well by generalized parton distributions (GPDs) in which chiral-odd transversity GPDs are dominant. The pi(0) and eta data, when taken together, can facilitate the flavor decomposition of the transversity GPDs.
Background: The electromagnetic form factors of the proton measured by unpolarized and polarized electron scattering experiments show a significant disagreement that grows with the squared four ...momentum transfer (Q2). Calculations have shown that the two measurements can be largely reconciled by accounting for the contributions of two-photon exchange (TPE). TPE effects are not typically included in the standard set of radiative corrections since theoretical calculations of the TPE effects are highly model dependent, and, until recently, no direct evidence of significant TPE effects has been observed. Purpose: We measured the ratio of positron-proton to electron-proton elastic-scattering cross sections in order to determine the TPE contribution to elastic electron-proton scattering and thereby resolve the proton electric form factor discrepancy. Methods: We produced a mixed simultaneous electron-positron beam in Jefferson Lab's Hall B by passing the 5.6 GeV primary electron beam through a radiator to produce a bremsstrahlung photon beam and then passing the photon beam through a convertor to produce electron/positron pairs. The mixed electron-positron (lepton) beam with useful energies from approximately 0.85 to 3.5 GeV then struck a 30-cm long liquid hydrogen (LH2) target located within the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS). By detecting both the scattered leptons and the recoiling protons we identified and reconstructed elastic scattering events and determined the incident lepton energy. A detailed description of the experiment is presented. Results: We present previously unpublished results for the quantity R2γ, the TPE correction to the elastic- scattering cross section, at Q2 ≈ 0:85 and 1.45 GeV2 over a large range of virtual photon polarization ε. Conclusions: Our results, along with recently published results from VEPP-3, demonstrate a non-zero contribution from TPE effects and are in excellent agreement with the calculations that include TPE effects and largely reconcile the form-factor discrepancy up to Q2 ≈ 2 GeV2. These data are consistent with an increase in R2γ with decreasing " at Q2 ≈ 0:85 and 1.45 GeV2. There are indications of a slight increase in R2γ with Q2.
We present the first measurement of the timelike Compton scattering process, γp→p^{'}γ^{*}(γ^{*}→e^{+}e^{-}), obtained with the CLAS12 detector at Jefferson Lab. The photon beam polarization and the ...decay lepton angular asymmetries are reported in the range of timelike photon virtualities 2.25<Q^{'2}<9 GeV^{2}, squared momentum transferred 0.1<-t<0.8 GeV^{2}, and average total center-of-mass energy squared s=14.5 GeV^{2}. The photon beam polarization asymmetry, similar to the beam-spin asymmetry in deep virtual Compton scattering, is sensitive to the imaginary part of the Compton form factors and provides a way to test the universality of the generalized parton distributions. The angular asymmetry of the decay leptons accesses the real part of the Compton form factors and thus the D-term in the parametrization of the generalized parton distributions.
The quark structure of the $f_2(1270)$ meson has, for many years, been assumed to be a pure quark-antiquark ($q\bar{q}$) resonance with quantum numbers $J^{PC} = 2^{++}$. Recently, it was proposed ...that the $f_2(1270)$ is a molecular state made from the attractive interaction of two $\rho$-mesons. Such a state would be expected to decay strongly to final states with charged pions, due to the dominant decay $\rho \to \pi^+ \pi^-$, whereas decay to two neutral pions would likely be suppressed. Here, we measure for the first time the reaction $\gamma p \to \pi^0 \pi^0 p$, using the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab for incident beam energies between 3.6-5.4~GeV. Differential cross sections, $d\sigma / dt$, for $f_2(1270)$ photoproduction are extracted with good precision, due to low backgrounds, and are compared with theoretical calculations.
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