US-South Africa Cooperative Research: Nuclear Physics

该奖项支持南卡罗来纳大学物理和天文学系C.Steven Whisnant和南非约翰内斯堡威特沃特斯兰德大学Schonland核科学研究中心(SRC)的Simon Connell之间的一项新的研究合作。在为期三年的奖励过程中，研究人员将合作进行使用光子束的核子和介子相互作用的理论和实验核物理研究。在单独的资助下，WITS的一名新近毕业的学生将在该项目中担任博士后。Whisnant教授的实验光核物理项目是在布鲁克海文国家实验室的激光电子伽马源(LEGS)和托马斯·杰斐逊国家加速器设施(JLAB)的连续电子束加速器设施(CLAS)进行的。作为欧洲粒子物理实验室(CERN)NA59合作的一部分，WITS的研究人员正在进行一个补充计划，通过在非常高的光子能量下产生介子来研究核子内部结构。NA59的合作开发了产生和分析圆偏振光子束的偏振度的技术，该技术可以提供关于LEGS和JLAB处的光束偏振的有价值的直接信息。相反，为LEGS开发的极化靶标技术可以显著增强CERN计划。南非研究人员提供的理论投入跨越了这两个能源领域，将对数据分析和新实验的设计提供宝贵的帮助。

0079949WhisnantThis award supports a new research collaboration between C. Steven Whisnant, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina, and Simon Connell, Schonland Research Center for Nuclear Sciences (SRC) at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), Johannesburg, South Africa. During the course of the three-year award, the researchers will collaborate on theoretical and experimental nuclear physics research on nucleon and meson interactions using photon beams. With separate funding, a recent graduate of WITS will work as a postdoc on the project.Professor Whisnant's experimental photonuclear physics program is conducted at the Laser Electron Gamma Source (LEGS) at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and with the Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) at the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jlab). As part of the NA59 collaboration at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN), the researchers at WITS are pursuing a complementary program studying the internal structure of the nucleon through meson photoproduction at very high photon energies. The NA59 collaboration has developed techniques for producing and analyzing the degree of polarization of circularly polarized photon beams that can provide valuable direct information on the beam polarization at LEGS and Jlab. Conversely, the polarized target technology developed for LEGS can significantly enhance the CERN program. The theoretical input provided by the researchers in South Africa spans both energy regions and will be a valuable aid in data analysis and the design of new experiments.