Structure of the Nucleon and Few-Body Nuclear Systems with Electron Scattering

该奖项支持对核物质的质子和中子成分以及自然界中最轻的原子核--氢和氦--的内部结构和动力学的实验研究。这些研究是基于高能电子在氢、氢、氚和氦原子核上的散射。这项拟议的研究利用杰斐逊实验室的连续电子束加速器和霍尔A能谱仪设施，在低温目标环境中用高能电子轰击原子核。由此产生的核反应产物由超导电磁铁和亚原子粒子探测器组成的磁谱仪进行探测。这些结果有望为质子和中子内部的三个夸克的分布、氢和氦的量子力学波函数以及这两个轻核中质子和中子组分相互作用的机制提供基本信息。来自拟议研究的预期实验数据将为我们在量子色动力学的现代理论框架内理解质子和中子的三个夸克成分的结构以及建立描述最简单核系统的一致的现代理论提供有价值的信息。

This award is supporting experimental studies of the internal structure and dynamics of the constituents of nuclear matter, the proton and neutron, and of the lightest nuclei in nature, the deuterium and helium. The studies are based on scattering of high-energy electrons off hydrogen, deuterium, tritium and helium nuclei. The proposed research uses the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator and Hall A Spectrometer Facilities of Jefferson Lab to bombard nuclei in cryogenic target environments with high-energy electrons. The resulting nuclear reaction products are detected with magnetic spectrometers comprised of superconducting electromagnets and subatomic particle detectors. The results are expected to provide fundamental information on the distributions of the three quarks inside the proton and neutron, on the quantum mechanical wave functions of deuterium and helium, and on the mechanism of the interaction of the proton and neutron constituents of these two light nuclei. The expected experimental data from the proposed investigations will offer valuable input to our understanding of the structure of the proton and neutron in terms of their three quark constituents within the modern theoretical framework of Quantum Chromodynamics, and to the establishment of a consistent modern theory describing the simplest nuclear systems.