Investigating the Electromagnetic Structure of the Nucleon and Light Nuclei at Jefferson Lab

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The primary objective of this research project is to continue collaborative efforts at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility ("Jefferson Lab") in Newport News, Virginia, which are specifically aimed at probing the structure of the nucleon using a high energy electron beam. This work will be accomplished in collaboration with the Super BigBite Spectrometer (SBS) Collaboration in Hall A at Jefferson Lab. During this grant period, Jefferson Lab will be emerging from the past transition "upgrade period" phase - having upgraded the beam energy from 6 GeV to 12 GeV - and beginning to utilize equipment specifically designed and built for the higher energy. This proposal includes a plan to ensure continued scientific contributions and student training with the early-running Hall A experiments (experiments focusing not only on nucleon structure, but also on that of light nuclei - particularly the triton three-nucleon system), but with primary emphasis remaining on preparation/development projects associated with a series of specific later-running SBS experiments that will probe nucleon structure functions at very high momentum transfers. The driving physics goals of all aspects of this project are related to improving understanding of the transition from the 'strong (non-perturbative) QCD' regime of relatively large distance scales of approximately 1 to a few fermis (where hadronic degrees of freedom are most appropriate), to the 'perturbative QCD' regime of much shorter distance scales.