Measurements of the nucleon electromagnetic form factors at high momentum transfer in experimental hall A at Jefferson Lab

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The focus of this project is a series of measurements of elastic electron-nucleon scattering to determine the nucleon's electromagnetic form factors. Much has been learned on the structure of hadrons and the strong interaction through previous measurements of the nucleon's form factors since the pioneering research of Hofstadter in the 1950s. Jefferson Lab in the USA is home to the CEBAF electron accelerator, which delivers continuous-wave, high current polarised electron beams with energies up to 12 GeV to four experimental halls. The goal of the SBS programme in experimental Hall A is extracting the nucleon form factors at the highest ever measured values of four momentum transfer in order to gain a better understanding of the quark-gluon dynamics that give rise to evolution of the form factors at these sub-nucleonic scales. The PhD student will be involved in all aspects of this ongoing experimental programme, from testing and installation of new hardware and detector systems, through paying an active role in the data-taking at Jefferson Lab, to running particle transport Monte Carlo simulations and analysing the experimental data. It is anticipated that the student's thesis will focus on one particular kinematic setting from one of the 2024 experiments.