EAGER: Beam particle tracking for the MUSE experiment at PSI

美国国家科学基金会使用探索性研究的早期概念拨款（EAGER）资助机制来支持在未经测试但具有潜在变革性的研究思路或方法的早期阶段的探索性工作。这个EAGER项目是由于Dear Colleague Letter NSF 16-080邀请来自历史上的黑人学院和大学的申请者提交提案，以加强该机构教师的研究能力而获得的。汉普顿大学的项目旨在利用瑞士保罗-谢勒研究所的μ子散射实验（MUSE）的气体电子倍增器探测器系统进行束粒子跟踪任务。项目成果可对核物理和粒子物理领域产生重大影响，并可能导致该领域的基本新知识。研究生也参与了这项活动。μ子散射实验（MUSE）将为所谓的质子半径难题提供关键见解——质子电荷半径测量分别与电子探针和μ子探针之间的7个标准差差异。可能的解释还包括标准模型之外的新物理学。MUSE实验旨在解决迄今为止核与粒子科学中最紧迫的问题之一。MUSE利用任意一种电荷的混合介子和电子束，精确测量轻子-质子弹性散射截面和质子形状因子，目的是提取每个探针的质子电荷半径。这需要精确测量散射角，这就需要以一种以前在低光束能量下没有做过的方式跟踪单个光束粒子。该项目专注于在高速率环境下使用气体电子倍增器探测器在MUSE上进行高分辨率光束粒子跟踪的挑战性任务。该项目由教育与人力资源部、数学与物理科学局以及国际科学与工程办公室共同资助。

The National Science Foundation uses the Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) funding mechanism to support exploratory work in its early stages on untested, but potentially transformative, research ideas or approaches. This EAGER project was awarded as a result of the invitation in the Dear Colleague Letter NSF 16-080 to proposers from Historically Black Colleges and Universities to submit proposals that would strengthen research capacity of faculty at the institution. The project at Hampton University aims to pursue the task of beam particle tracking with a Gas Electron Multiplier detector system for the MUon Scattering Experiment (MUSE) at the Paul-Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. The project outcome can have significant impact in the field of nuclear and particle physics and may lead to basic new knowledge in that field. Graduate students are involved in this activity.The Muon Scattering Experiment (MUSE) will provide key insights to the so-called proton radius puzzle - the seven-standard deviation discrepancy between proton charge radius measurements with electronic and muonic probes, respectively. Possible explanations also include new physics beyond the Standard Model. The MUSE experiment aims to address one of the most pressing questions in nuclear and particle science to date. MUSE uses mixed muon and electron beams of either charge to make precise measurements of the lepton-proton elastic scattering cross sections and proton form factors, with the goal to extract the proton charge radius for each probe. This requires precise measurements of the scattering angles necessitating the tracking of individual beam particles in a way not done before at low beam energies. This project focuses on the challenging task of high-resolution beam particle tracking at MUSE with Gas Electron Multiplier detectors in a high-rate environment.This project is co-funded by the Directorates for Education & Human Resources and Mathematical & Physical Sciences, as well as the Office of International Science and Engineering.