Hard Two-body Photodisintegration of 3He

We have measured cross sections for the gamma+3He->p+d reaction at photon energies of 0.4 - 1.4 GeV and a center-of-mass angle of 90 deg. We observe dimensional scaling above 0.7 GeV at this center-of-mass angle. This is the first observation of dimensional scaling in the photodisintegration of a nucleus heavier than the deuteron.

Studying the Proton Radius Puzzle with mu p Elastic Scattering

The Proton Radius Puzzle is the inconsistency between the proton radius determined from muonic hydrogen and the proton radius determined from atomic hydrogen level transitions and ep elastic scattering. No generally accepted resolution to the Puzzle has been found. Possible solutions generally fall into one of three categories: the two radii are different due to novel beyond-standard-model physics, the two radii are different due to novel aspects of nucleon structure, and the two radii are the same, but there are underestimated uncertainties or other issues in the ep experiments. The MUon proton Scattering Experiment (MUSE) at the Paul Scherrer Institut is a simultaneous measurement of mu^+ p and e^+ p elastic scattering, as well as mu^- p and e^- p elastic scattering, which will allow a determination of the consistency of the mu p and the ep interactions. The differences between + and - charge scattering are sensitive to two-photon exchange effects, higher-order corrections to the scattering process. The slopes of the cross sections as Q^2 -> 0 determine the proton radius. We plan to measure relative cross sections at a typical level of a few tenths of a percent, which should allow the proton radius to be determined at the level of ~0.01 fm, similar to previous ep measurements. The measurements will test several possible explanations of the proton radius puzzle, including some models of beyond-standard-model physics, some models of novel hadronic physics, and some issues in the radius extraction from scattering data.

Polarization components in $pi^{0}$ photoproduction at photon energies up to 5.6 GeV

We present new data for the polarization observables of the final state proton in the $^{1}H(vec{gamma},vec{p})pi^{0}$ reaction. These data can be used to test predictions based on hadron helicity conservation (HHC) and perturbative QCD (pQCD). These data have both small statistical and systematic uncertainties, and were obtained with beam energies between 1.8 and 5.6 GeV and for $pi^{0}$ scattering angles larger than 75$^{circ}$ in center-of-mass (c.m.) frame. The data extend the polarization measurements data base for neutral pion photoproduction up to $E_{gamma}=5.6 GeV$. The results show non-zero induced polarization above the resonance region. The polarization transfer components vary rapidly with the photon energy and $pi^{0}$ scattering angle in c.m. frame. This indicates that HHC does not hold and that the pQCD limit is still not reached in the energy regime of this experiment.

Search for effects beyond the Born approximation in polarization transfer observables in $vec{e}p$ elastic scattering

Intensive theoretical and experimental efforts over the past decade have aimed at explaining the discrepancy between data for the proton electric to magnetic form factor ratio, $G_{E}/G_{M}$, obtained separately from cross section and polarization transfer measurements. One possible explanation for this difference is a two-photon-exchange (TPEX) contribution. In an effort to search for effects beyond the one-photon-exchange or Born approximation, we report measurements of polarization transfer observables in the elastic $H(vec{e},evec{p})$ reaction for three different beam energies at a fixed squared momentum transfer $Q^2 = 2.5$ GeV$^2$, spanning a wide range of the virtual photon polarization parameter, $epsilon$. From these measured polarization observables, we have obtained separately the ratio $R$, which equals $mu_p G_{E}/G_{M}$ in the Born approximation, and the longitudinal polarization transfer component $P_ell$, with statistical and systematic uncertainties of $Delta R approx pm 0.01 mbox{(stat)} pm 0.013 mbox{(syst)}$ and $Delta P_ell/P^{Born}_{ell} approx pm 0.006 mbox{(stat)}pm 0.01 mbox{(syst)}$. The ratio $R$ is found to be independent of $epsilon$ at the 1.5% level, while the $epsilon$ dependence of $P_ell$ shows an enhancement of $(2.3 pm 0.6) %$ relative to the Born approximation at large $epsilon$.