RUI: Probing Subatomic Physics Via Lepton Interactions

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The Particle and Nuclear Physics group at James Madison University aims to be a key contributor to state of the art research in Intermediate Energy Nuclear Physics while providing an outstanding educational experience for undergraduate students. The three faculty members and their students focus on research designed to explore the structure of nucleons (neutrons and protons) which are the basic building blocks of any atomic nucleus. While it is understood that nucleons are composed of three interacting (via gluon exchange) quarks (viewed as fundamental particles) the picture of the mechanisms that give rise and govern the evolution of multi-quark systems (protons, neutrons, nuclei) is not yet complete. The group participates in studies aimed at clarifying this picture by charting the structure of nuclei and nucleons using electron, muon, and photon probes. Group members are deeply involved in the efforts of building the hardware (detector development), software, as well as the organizational infrastructure needed to carry out this research program. Currently the group is actively involved in ongoing research at Jefferson Lab in experimental Halls A, B, and C (inclusive electron scattering off the nucleon, duality studies, strangeness production) and Fermilab (the muon gyromagnetic constant, g-2). Additionally, the JMU-PNP group members are key participants in detector and software development (Hall C: scintillator hodoscope detector, ROOT/C++ data analysis code; Hall B: forward tagger, preshower calorimeter) that is part of the 12 GeV energy upgrade at Jefferson Lab and are principal investigators on experiments that will take advantage of this upgrade. The group's success can be measured through the number of publications, signaling the deepening of our understanding of subnuclear matter. Equally as important success can be gauged also through the number of undergraduate students that gain invaluable experience by pursuing research in our group.