Precision Studies in Subatomic Systems

该奖项支持一个实验研究项目，以探索我们对某些亚原子粒子的知识极限，以及它们在最小长度尺度上的相互作用。该项目研究了三个系统：介子、介子（电子的“表亲”，质量更大）和中子，重点研究了它们各自固有的低能特性。这些性质对标准模型的一些基本成分很敏感，标准模型描述了已知基本粒子的数量和基本特征。因此，确定这些属性有可能揭示标准模型之外的新物理学。该项目旨在推进核和基本粒子物理的基础科学，通过教育新一代STEM劳动力，为建设国家的STEM人才做出贡献，同时保持其多样性并利用最广泛的可用人才库，最后，开发具有更广泛应用的基础研究新工具。提出的研究继续了正在进行的低能电弱和强相互作用研究计划。该项目的直接目标是：(a)装配和调试Nab设备，这是一个在散裂中子源（SNS）精确测量中子衰变参数的程序；(b)在Paul Scherrer研究所（PSI）完成的PEN实验数据分析的结论，该实验是对介子（pi-e2和pi-e2g）的电子和辐射电子稀有衰变的精确测量；随着PEN的工作接近完成，重点将转移到(c)新的精确测量介子回旋磁比，即费米实验室的介子g-2实验。Nab是对电子-反中微子相关参数“a”的高速率非极化测量，精度为千分之几，是对中子衰变参数“b”（Fierz干涉项）的首次测量。Nab的目标是解决在确定核子轴矢量形状因子以及因此在Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa夸克混合矩阵中Vud项的持续不一致，并通过利用中子衰变的独特优势，为标准模型的可能扩展提供新的限制，例如左右对称模型，轻夸克等。中子衰变是核物理学中最基本和理论上最好理解的过程之一。PEN的目标是使π介子电子衰变分支比的精度达到万分之五，这是目前最精确的轻子普适性（LU）的实验测试。目前，π -e2衰变测量的精度落后于SM理论预测超过一个数量级。SM之外的许多物理场景会导致LU违反。由于中微子物理学的发展，轻子和一般轻子的性质具有更大的意义。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award supports a program of experimental research to explore the limits of our knowledge of certain subatomic particles, and of their interactions at the smallest length scale. The project investigates three systems: the pi meson, the muon (a more massive "cousin" of the electron), and the neutron, focusing on the intrinsic low-energy properties of each of them. Those properties are sensitive to some of the basic components of the Standard Model, which describes the number and basic characteristics of the known elementary particles. Determining these properties thus has the potential to uncover new physics beyond the Standard Model. The project aims to advance basic science in nuclear and elementary particle physics, contribute to building the nation's STEM talent by educating members of the new generation of the STEM workforce, while keeping in focus its diversity and tapping the broadest available talent pool, and, finally, to develop new tools in fundamental research with possible broader applications. The proposed research continues an ongoing program of study of the electroweak and strong interactions at low energies. The immediate goals of the project are: (a) assembly and commissioning of the apparatus for Nab, a program of precise measurements of the neutron beta decay parameters at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS); (b) conclusion of the data analysis for the PEN experiment, a precise measurement of the electronic and radiative electronic rare decays of the pion (pi-e2 and pi-e2g), completed at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI); and as the work on PEN nears completion, focus will move to (c) the new precise measurement of the muon gyromagnetic ratio, the muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab. Nab is a highly rate unpolarized measurement of the electron-antineutrino correlation parameter "a" with accuracy of a few parts in 1000, and the first measurement of the neutron decay parameter "b", the Fierz interference term. Nab aims to resolve the persistent inconsistencies in the determination of the nucleon axial vector form factor and, consequently, of the Vud term in the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa quark mixing matrix, and to provide new limits on possible extensions of the Standard Model, such as left-right symmetric models, leptoquarks, etc., by exploiting the unique advantages of neutron decay, one of the most basic and theoretically best understood processes in nuclear physics. The goal of PEN is to reach the precision of 5 parts in 10,000 for the branching ratio of the electronic decay of the pion, which is the most accurate experimental test of lepton universality (LU) available. At present, precision of the pi-e2 decay measurements lags behind the SM theoretical predictions by more than an order of magnitude. A number of physics scenarios outside the SM would lead to LU violation. LU, and lepton properties in general, carry added significance due to developments in neutrino physics.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.