RUI: Experimental Subatomic Physics at Virginia Union University

该奖项支持弗吉尼亚联合大学（VUU）的一位教授和与他一起工作的学生，他们为两个旨在理解中子基本结构和动力学的高影响测量做出了重要贡献。该奖项将通过装备一个对亚原子物理学和潜在应用有用的慢速控制开发设施，加强VUU物理学教师可用的研究基础设施。学生的发展将通过增加研究机会和接触世界领先的研究机构而得到加强，该研究机构拥有一批经验丰富的多国科学家和工程师，这些参与者将获得硬件和软件方面的培训和经验，这对他们未来的STEM职业生涯将是无价的。该奖项由物理学部和HBCU-UP项目共同支持，该项目隶属于STEM卓越公平学部。计划中的研究有助于杰斐逊实验室的BONuS12和TDIS实验，使近自由中子目标的研究成为可能，并寻求进一步完善中子结构功能。对中子结构函数的认识目前代表了科学界的一个空白，并影响了中微子散射测量。提出的工作有助于开发一个慢速控制系统来监测漂移和目标气体系统的TDIS实验。在单独的调查中，PI将合作利用人工智能和已发布的结构功能数据进行新的F2A计算。这方面的工作已被亚原子物理社区证明是有趣的，与拟合例程的插值/外推相比，这种方法将是对目前可用的参数化的补充，因为它利用经过训练的人工神经网络来计算该数量。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 one Virginia Union University (VUU) professor and students working with him in making important contributions to two high-impact measurements aimed at understanding the fundamental structure and dynamics of the neutron. The award will strengthen the research infrastructure available to VUU faculty in physics by outfitting a slow controls development facility that will be useful for subatomic physics and potential applications. Student development will be enhanced by the added availability of research opportunities and exposure to a world-leading research facility that hosts a multi-national group of experienced scientists and engineers, and these participants will gain training and experience in hardware and software that will be invaluable for their future STEM careers. This award is jointly supported by the Division of Physics and the HBCU-UP Program within the Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM. The planned research contributes to the BONuS12 and TDIS experiments at Jefferson Lab, which enable the study of near-free neutron targets and seek to further refine the neutron structure function. Knowledge of the neutron structure function currently represents a gap in the community’s understanding, and affects neutrino scattering measurements. The proposed work contributes to the development of a slow controls system to monitor drift and target gas systems for the TDIS experiment. In a separate line of inquiry, the PI will collaborate on utilizing AI and published structure function data for a new F2A calculation. Work to this end has proven interesting to the subatomic physics community and this method will be complementary to the parameterizations that are presently available, in that it utilizes an artificial neural network that is trained to calculate this quantity, compared to interpolation/extrapolation from fitting routines.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.