Hadron Structure Through Exclusive Reactions

核科学的基本目标是了解所有形式的核物质，例如，原子核心的原子核的起源和结构，以及几乎占可见宇宙全部质量的核子及其夸克和胶子成分。在过去的十年中，硬排他反应作为一类过程出现，提供了关于强子（对强作用力敏感的粒子）中部分子（夸克和胶子）分布的新信息。因式分解定理允许用广义部子分布（GPDs）来表示振幅，这有望在动量和坐标空间中提供核子结构的通用描述。实验上，对横向空间结构的访问依赖于渐近自由，这使得实验探针与一个部分子的硬相互作用与被击中的部分子与强子其余部分的残余软相互作用明确地分离开来。在应用软硬分解的运动学体系中，对源自被击中的部分子的光子或介子的专有测量可用于创建核子的层析图像。该项目在这些研究中扮演着重要的角色，特别是通过PI在杰斐逊实验室的光子和介子产生实验，这对于可靠地解释GPD计划在6 GeV和12 GeV下的结果至关重要。青年科学家、研究生和本科生在这个项目中发挥着不可或缺的作用，为他们提供了进一步培训和教育的机会。这些机会将包括获得设计、组装和测试现代仪器的经验，用于辐射和亚原子粒子探测、快速信号处理电子和科学数据分析。此外，学习在大型国际科学界工作将使年轻的科学家和学生为学术机构、国家实验室和工业的现代工作环境做好准备。PI的研究项目对研究生和本科生的教育做出了重大贡献，在过去的三年里，对十名高中生也做出了贡献。她在与少数族裔学生打交道方面有着丰富的经验，通过提供一个女性榜样，她可以鼓励女性在物理学方面进行更深入的研究。

The fundamental goal of nuclear science is to understand all forms of nuclear matter, e.g., the origin and structure of the nucleus at core of the atom, and the nucleons and their quark and gluon constituents which account for nearly all of the mass of the visible universe. Over the last decade, hard exclusive reactions have emerged as a class of processes providing novel information on the parton (quark and gluon) distributions in hadrons - the particles sensitive to the strong force. Factorization theorems allow for expressing amplitudes in terms of the Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs), which are expected to provide a universal description of nucleon structure in both momentum and coordinate space. Experimentally, access to the transverse spatial structure relies on asymptotic freedom, allowing the hard interaction of the experimental probe with one parton to be unambiguously separated from the residual soft interaction of the struck parton with the rest of the hadron. In a kinematic regime where hard-soft factorization applies, exclusive measurements of a photon or meson originating from the struck parton can be used to create a tomographic image of the nucleon. This project plays an important role in these studies, specifically through the PI's exclusive photon and meson production experiments at Jefferson Lab, which will be essential for a reliable interpretation of the results from the GPD program at both 6 GeV and 12 GeV. Young scientists, graduate students, and undergraduate students play an integral part in this project, which provides them with opportunities to further their training and education. These will include the opportunity to gain experience in the design, assembly, and testing of modern instrumentation for the detection of radiation and subatomic particles, fast signal processing electronics, and scientific data analysis. Furthermore, learning to work in a large international scientific community will prepare young scientists and students for the modern work environment at academic institutions, national laboratories, and industry. The PI's research projects have contributed significantly to the education of graduate and undergraduate, and, over the past three years, ten high school students. She has considerable experience working with minority students, and by providing a female role model, she could encourage women to pursue advanced studies in physics.