Elucidating the Fundamental Properties of the Nucleon with Dispersive Techniques

现代核物理学和粒子物理学关注的是理解自然界的基本参数和对称性。这个谜题的一个关键的新部分最近随着诺贝尔奖获得者中微子味振荡的发现而变得可用，它表明中微子的质量与标准模型的范式相反。今天，中微子物理学领域进入了精确时代，基于加速器的中微子振荡实验在美国和世界的实验计划中占据了中心地位。为了理解中微子与探测器中原子核的相互作用，需要精确地模拟强相互作用--将原子核束缚在一起的力。PI将使用最先进的分析技术来完成这项工作，重点是与费米实验室和其他地方的中微子实验最直接相关的数量。因此，该项目将提供支持这些实验突破所需的必要理论基础。它还将为学生和青年研究人员提供良好的培训场所。这个项目的重点是在物理学的一个特定的一块，发挥了关键作用，在模拟中微子相互作用在GeV的能量：核子轴形状因子。它描述了核子的结构，核子不是点状粒子，但其结构仍然不为人所知。PI和她的合作者将开发一个基于物理的框架，以准确地模拟这种形状因子，基于手性微扰理论和色散技术的方法。此外，一个桥梁，数值计算的晶格将建立各种分析约束，如电流守恒的应用。协议与各种电子散射数据也将探讨。该奖项将用于支持托马斯杰斐逊实验室最先进的核物理实验，特别是GSTX或CLAS，以及费米实验室和全球即将进行的精密中微子核散射实验。该奖项反映了NSF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。

Modern nuclear physics and particle physics are concerned with understanding the fundamental parameters and symmetries of nature. A crucial new piece of this puzzle has recently become available with the Nobel-prize-winning discovery of the neutrino flavor oscillations, which showed that neutrinos had masses contrary to the paradigm of the Standard Model. Today, the field of neutrino physics enters the precision era, with accelerator-based neutrino oscillation experiments taking center stage in the experimental program in the US and in the world. To understand neutrino interactions with nuclei in the detector requires accurate modeling of strong interactions—the force that binds the nucleus together. The PI will do this using state-of-the-art analytical techniques, focusing on the quantities of most direct relevance to neutrino experiments at Fermilab and elsewhere. This project will thus provide the necessary theoretical foundations needed to support these experimental breakthroughs. It will also provide excellent training ground for students and young researchers. The focus of this project is be on a specific piece of physics that plays a crucial role in modeling neutrino interactions at GeV energies: the nucleon axial form factor. It describes the structure of the nucleon which is not a point-like particle but has a structure that is still not well known. The PI and her collaborators will develop a physics-based framework to accurately model this form factor, based on the methods of chiral perturbation theory and dispersive techniques. Moreover, a bridge to numerical evaluations on the lattice will be established by applications of various analytical constraints, such as current conservation. Agreement with various electron scattering data will also be explored. This will support state-of-the-art nuclear physics experiments at Thomas Jefferson Laboratory, particularly GlueX or CLAS, as well as the upcoming precision neutrino-nucleus scattering experiments at Fermilab and worldwide.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.