Exploring Fundamental Properties of Matter with Electromagnetic Probes

有了这个奖项，汉普顿大学实验核物理组助理教授Michael Kohl博士将能够继续在德国汉堡的DESY进行奥林巴斯实验，并保持和扩大他作为当选奥林巴斯发言人的领导作用。德国DESY的奥林巴斯实验将精确测量弹性正电子-质子和电子-质子散射截面的比例。通过这次测量，OLYMPUS将明确地确定双光子交换在轻子-质子散射中的影响，从而验证它是否确实是导致极化转移和杰斐逊实验室观察到的横截面方法之间质子电磁性形状因子比测量差异的原因。如果没有这样一个明确的测试，不仅电磁形状因素，而且通常在单光子交换框架内完成的所有电子散射数据的解释都受到相当大的怀疑。奥林巴斯实验自2010年获得DESY和美国国家科学基金会和美国能源部资助的正式批准以来一直在准备，并于2012年2月获得了第一批数据。它计划在2012年秋季进一步运行。奥林巴斯仪器在很大程度上是基于麻省理工学院之前的BLAST探测器，该探测器已被重新安置到DESY并重新组装。一些组件被升级或新增，如新的气体电子倍增器（GEM）基于前向弹性跟踪光度监测望远镜，这是由科尔博士在汉普顿大学的新小组在国家科学基金会的资助下建造的。GEM探测器的操作和维护以及奥林巴斯这一重要组成部分的未来分析一直是并将继续是汉普顿集团的主要机构责任。科尔的研究项目有很多方面，为国内外一流的教育和研究提供了很好的机会。该项目将继续将汉普顿大学校园内的新实验室与DESY和杰斐逊实验室等大型研究机构的前沿研究结合起来，为少数民族学生，主要是非洲裔美国人提供新的研究和教育机会。Kohl博士一直成功地与汉普顿大学的本科生和研究生一起工作，并一直是汉普顿小组博士后研究人员的专门导师。科尔博士一直与麻省理工学院保持着牢固的合作关系，麻省理工学院的目标是为有才华的本科生提供进入顶尖学校接受研究生教育的渠道，并最终增加非裔美国人博士的数量。

With the award, Dr. Michael Kohl, assistant professor in the experimental nuclear physics group of Hampton University, will be able to continue to pursue the OLYMPUS experiment at DESY in Hamburg, Germany, and to maintain and expand his leadership role as the elected OLYMPUS spokesperson. The OLYMPUS experiment at DESY, Germany, will precisely measure the ratio of elastic positron-proton and electron-proton scattering cross sections. With this measurement, OLYMPUS will definitively determine the effect of two-photon exchange in lepton-proton scattering and hence verify if it is indeed responsible for the discrepancy in measurements of the proton electric to magnetic form factor ratio between the polarization transfer and cross section methods as observed at Jefferson Lab. Without such a definitive test, not only the electromagnetic form factors but the interpretations of all electron scattering data, usually done in the framework of single-photon exchange, are under considerable doubt. The OLYMPUS experiment has been prepared since official approval by DESY and of the US funding by NSF and DOE in 2010 and has taken first data in Februry 2012. It is scheduled for further running in fall 2012. The OLYMPUS apparatus is to a large extent based on the previous BLAST detector from MIT, which has been relocated to DESY and reassembled. Several components were upgraded or newly added, such as the new Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) based forward elastic tracking telescopes for luminosity monitoring, which have been built by Dr. Kohl's new group at Hampton University with help of NSF funding. The operation and maintenance of the GEM detectors and future analysis of this essential component of OLYMPUS has been and continues to be the main institutional responsibility of the Hampton group.Dr. Kohl's research program has many facets and offers a great opportunity for first class education and research purpose domestically and abroad. This project will continue to combine utilization of a new lab on the campus of Hampton University with forefront research at the sites of large research facilities such as DESY and Jefferson Lab, and provide new research and educational opportunities for students from minority populations, predominantly African-Americans. Dr. Kohl has been successfully working with Hampton University undergraduate and graduate students and has been a dedicated mentor for the postdoctoral researchers of the Hampton group. Dr. Kohl has been maintaining a strong partnership with MIT, which has a goal of providing a pipeline of talented undergraduate students toward graduate education in top schools and to ultimately increase the number of African-American PhDs.