Studies of Quark-Gluon Physics

夸克-胶子物理研究

• 批准号: 1506489
• 负责人: Edward Kinney
• 金额: $ 42万
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-06-15 至 2021-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1506489&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Studies; Quark; Gluon; Physics

It is now a well-established fact that nucleons, protons and neutrons, are made up of more elementary particles called quarks. The main physics program supported by this grant is to study of the quark structure of nucleons. More information is needed about the details of this quark structure. One aspect that is particularly interesting is the existence of anti-quarks in the proton, which is a consequence of quantum mechanics. An experiment called Seaquest uses high-energy protons from the Fermilab accelerator to study these anti-quark distributions in the nucleon and in nuclei. This experiment will achieve unprecedented accuracy in the determination of the anti-quark distributions. Beyond the field of particle physics, these distributions are useful in cosmology as they seek to understand matter at the galactic scale. Beyond the scientific goals, the proposed detector commissioning, data acquisition and analysis activities will continue to offer education and research experience to undergraduates and graduate students.This three-year research program will study the ratio of anti-down quarks to anti-up quarks in the nucleon and in nuclei using the Drell-Yan reaction at Fermilab. At high momentum fraction these poorly known anti-quark distributions may provide a partonic understanding of the well known "pion cloud" model of classical nuclear physics. The reaction in nuclear targets will also be used to study quark energy loss. The Colorado group has nearly completed a new tracking detector for the Seaquest spectrometer, providing a larger acceptance and higher rate capabilities, and plans to complete, install, and commission this detector.

核子、质子和中子都是由更基本的夸克组成的，这一点现在已是公认的事实。该资助支持的主要物理学项目是研究核子的夸克结构。需要更多关于这种夸克结构的信息。特别有趣的一个方面是质子中存在反夸克，这是量子力学的结果。一个名为Seaquest的实验使用费米实验室加速器的高能质子来研究这些反夸克在核子和原子核中的分布。这个实验将在确定反夸克分布方面达到前所未有的精确度。在粒子物理学领域之外，这些分布在宇宙学中是有用的，因为它们试图理解银河系尺度的物质。 除了科学目标之外，拟议的探测器调试、数据采集和分析活动将继续为本科生和研究生提供教育和研究经验。这个为期三年的研究计划将利用费米实验室的Drell-Yan反应研究核子和原子核中反下夸克和反上夸克的比例。在高动量分数下，这些鲜为人知的反夸克分布可能提供对经典核物理中著名的"π介子云"模型的部分子理解。核靶中的反应也将用于研究夸克能量损失。科罗拉多小组已接近完成Seaquest光谱仪的新跟踪探测器，提供更大的接受能力和更高的速率能力，并计划完成，安装和调试该探测器。