Structure of the Nucleon and Few-Body Nuclear Systems with Electron Scattering

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This award is supporting experimental studies of the internal structure and dynamics of the constituents of nuclear matter, the proton and neutron, and of the lightest nuclei in nature, the deuterium and helium. The studies are based on scattering of high-energy electrons off hydrogen, deuterium, tritium and helium nuclei. The proposed research uses the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator and Hall A Spectrometer Facilities of Jefferson Lab to bombard nuclei in cryogenic target environments with high-energy electrons. The resulting nuclear reaction products are detected with magnetic spectrometers comprised of superconducting electromagnets and subatomic particle detectors. The results are expected to provide fundamental information on the distributions of the three quarks inside the proton and neutron, on the quantum mechanical wave functions of deuterium and helium, and on the mechanism of the interaction of the proton and neutron constituents of these two light nuclei. The expected experimental data from the proposed investigations will offer valuable input to our understanding of the structure of the proton and neutron in terms of their three quark constituents within the modern theoretical framework of Quantum Chromodynamics, and to the establishment of a consistent modern theory describing the simplest nuclear systems.