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Peng, C.

Publications and source records attributed to Peng, C..

Quasielastic $\overrightarrow{^{3}He}$ $(\overrightarrow{e},e′)$ asymmetry in the threshold region with a longitudinally polarized target

We report on the measurements of the double-spin asymmetry from electron- 3 He scattering in the threshold region of two- and three-body breakup of 3 He for 4-momentum transfer values of 0.1 and 0.2 (GeV/c) 2 . The measurement was done at Jefferson Lab using a polarized 3 He target with its spin aligned parallel to the beam direction. This asymmetry is sensitive to a combination of spin-dependent response functions not previously measured and may highlight differences in two body forces, meson-exchange currents and final-state interactions. The results of this measurement serve as a test of our understanding of few-body systems. When compared with calculations from plane wave impulse approximation and Faddeev calculations, we found that the latter, which use modern nuclear potentials and prescriptions for meson-exchange currents, demonstrate an overall good agreement with data.

Few-body nuclei↗

On ultrafast x-ray scattering methods for magnetism

With the introduction of x-ray free electron laser sources around the world, new scientific approaches for visualizing matter at fundamental length and time-scales have become possible. As it relates to magnetism and ‘magnetic-type’ systems, advanced methods are being developed for studying ultrafast magnetic responses on the time-scales at which they occur. We describe three capabilities which have the potential to seed new directions in this area and present original results from each: pump-probe x-ray scattering with low energy excitation, x-ray photon fluctuation spectroscopy, and ultrafast diffuse x-ray scattering. By combining these experimental techniques with advanced modeling together with machine learning, we describe how the combination of these domains allows for a new understanding in the field of magnetism. Finally, we give an outlook for future areas of investigation and the newly developed instruments which will take us there.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Performance of a coarsely pixelated LAPPD photosensor for the SoLID gas Cherenkov detectors

The SoLID spectrometer's gas Cherenkov counters require photosensors that operate in a high luminosity and high background environment. The reference design features arrays of 9 or 16 tiled multi-anode photomultipliers (MaPMTs), distributed across 32 sectors, to serve the light-gas and heavy-gas Cherenkov counters, respectively. To assess the viability of a pixelated INCOM Large Area Picosecond Photodetector (LAPPD TM ) as an alternative photosensor to replace MaPMT arrays in either detector, we evaluated its performance under realistic SoLID running conditions in Hall C at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab). The results of this test confirmed that the coarse-pixelated (2.5 × 2.5 cm 2 pixel size) LAPPD is capable of handling the total projected signal and background rates of the three pillar SoLID experiments. The tested photosensor detected Cherenkov signals with the capability of separating single-electron events from pair production events while rejecting background. Although the design was not aimed at ring-imaging Cherenkov detectors, Cherenkov disk images were captured in two different gas radiators. Through a direct comparison with a GEANT4 simulation, we confirmed the experimental performance of the LAPPD.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Artificial Intelligence for the Electron Ion Collider (AI4EIC)

The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), a state-of-the-art facility for studying the strong force, is expected to begin commissioning its first experiments in 2028. This is an opportune time for artificial intelligence (AI) to be included from the start at this facility and in all phases that lead up to the experiments. The second annual workshop organized by the AI4EIC working group, which recently took place, centered on exploring all current and prospective application areas of AI for the EIC. This workshop is not only beneficial for the EIC, but also provides valuable insights for the newly established ePIC collaboration at EIC. This paper summarizes the different activities and R&D projects covered across the sessions of the workshop and provides an overview of the goals, approaches and strategies regarding AI/ML in the EIC community, as well as cutting-edge techniques currently studied in other experiments.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

The solenoidal large intensity device (SoLID) for JLab 12 GeV

The solenoidal large intensity device (SoLID) is a new experimental apparatus planned for Hall A at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab). SoLID will combine large angular and momentum acceptance with the capability to handle very high data rates at high luminosity. With a slate of approved high-impact physics experiments, SoLID will push JLab to a new limit at the QCD intensity frontier that will exploit the full potential of its 12 GeV electron beam. In this paper, we present an overview of the rich physics program that can be realized with SoLID, which encompasses the tomography of the nucleon in 3D momentum space from semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering, expanding the phase space in the search for new physics and novel hadronic effects in parity-violating DIS, a precision measurement of J/ψ production at threshold that probes the gluon field and its contribution to the proton mass, tomography of the nucleon in combined coordinate and momentum space with deep exclusive reactions, and more. To meet the challenging requirements, the design of SoLID described here takes full advantage of recent progress in detector, data acquisition and computing technologies. In addition, we outline potential experiments beyond the currently approved program and discuss the physics that could be explored should upgrades of CEBAF become a reality in the future.

3D imaging↗

Determining the gluonic gravitational form factors of the proton

The proton is one of the main building blocks of all visible matter in the Universe. Among its intrinsic properties are its electric charge, mass and spin. These properties emerge from the complex dynamics of its fundamental constituents—quarks and gluons—described by the theory of quantum chromodynamics. The electric charge and spin of protons, which are shared among the quarks, have been investigated previously using electron scattering. An example is the highly precise measurement of the electric charge radius of the proton. By contrast, little is known about the inner mass density of the proton, which is dominated by the energy carried by gluons. Gluons are hard to access using electron scattering because they do not carry an electromagnetic charge. Here we investigated the gravitational density of gluons using a small colour dipole, through the threshold photoproduction of the J/ψ particle. We determined the gluonic gravitational form factors of the proton from our measurement. Here we used a variety of models and determined, in all cases, a mass radius that is notably smaller than the electric charge radius. In some, but not all cases, depending on the model, the determined radius agrees well with first-principle predictions from lattice quantum chromodynamics. This work paves the way for a deeper understanding of the salient role of gluons in providing gravitational mass to visible matter.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Performance of photosensors in a high-rate environment for gas Cherenkov detectors

We report the solenoidal large intensity device (SoLID) at Jefferson Lab will push the boundaries of luminosity for a large-acceptance detector, which necessitates the use of a light-gas threshold Cherenkov counter for online event selection. Due to the high luminosity, the single-photon background rate in this counter can exceed 160 kHz/cm 2 at the photosensors. Therefore, it is essential to validate the high-rate limits of the planned photosensors and readout electronics in order to mitigate the risk of failure. We report on the design and an early set of studies carried out using a small Cherenkov counter in a high-rate environment up to 60 kHz/cm 2 , in Hall C at Jefferson Lab. Commercially available multi-anode photomultipliers (MaPMT) and low-cost large-area picosecond photodetectors (LAPPD) were tested using the JLab FADC250 modules for readout. The test beam results show that the MaPMT array and the internal stripline LAPPD can detect and identify single-electron and pair-production events in high-rate environments. Due to its higher quantum efficiency, the MaPMT array provided a better separation between the single-electron and the pair-production events compared to the internal stripline LAPPD. A GEANT4 simulation confirms the beam test performance of our counter device.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

The PRad windowless gas flow target

In this work, we report on a windowless, high-density, gas flow target at Jefferson Lab that was used to measure $r_p$, the root-mean-square charge radius of the proton. To our knowledge, this is the first such system used in a fixed-target experiment at a (non-storage ring) electron accelerator. The target achieved its design goal of an areal density of 2$\times$10$^{18}$ atoms/cm$^2$, with the gas uniformly distributed over the 4 cm length of the cell and less than 1% residual gas outside the cell. This design eliminated scattering from the end caps of the target cell, a problem endemic to previous measurements of the proton charge radius in electron scattering experiments, and permitted a precise, model-independent extraction of $r_p$ by reaching unprecedentedly low values of $Q^2$, the square of the electron's transfer of four-momentum to the proton.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

A small proton charge radius from an electron–proton scattering experiment

Elastic electron–proton scattering (e–p) and the spectroscopy of hydrogen atoms are the two methods normally used to determine the proton charge radius, r p . In 2010, a new method using muonic hydrogen atoms found a substantial discrepancy compared with previous results, which became known as the ‘proton radius puzzle’. Despite experimental and theoretical efforts, the puzzle remains unresolved. In fact, there is a discrepancy between the two most recent spectroscopic measurements conducted on ordinary hydrogen. In this work, we report on the proton charge radius experiment at Jefferson Laboratory (PRad), a high-precision e–p experiment that was established after the discrepancy was identified. We used a magnetic-spectrometer-free method along with a windowless hydrogen gas target, which overcame several limitations of previous e–p experiments and enabled measurements at very small forward-scattering angles. Our result, r p = 0.831 ± 0.007 stat ± 0.012 syst femtometres, is smaller than the most recent high-precision e–p measurement and 2.7 standard deviations smaller than the average of all e–p experimental results. The smaller rp we have now measured supports the value found by two previous muonic hydrogen experiments. In addition, our finding agrees with the revised value (announced in 2019) for the Rydberg constant—one of the most accurately evaluated fundamental constants in physics.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Directional massless Dirac fermions in a layered van der Waals material with one-dimensional long-range order

One or a few layers of van der Waals (vdW) materials are promising for applications in nanoscale electronics. Established properties include high mobility in graphene, a large direct gap in monolayer MoS 2 , the quantum spin Hall effect in monolayer WTe 2 and so on. These exciting properties arise from electron quantum confinement in the two-dimensional limit. In this work, we use angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to reveal directional massless Dirac fermions due to one-dimensional confinement of carriers in the layered vdW material NbSi 0.45 Te 2 . The one-dimensional directional massless Dirac fermions are protected by non-symmorphic symmetry, and emerge from a stripe-like structural modulation with long-range translational symmetry only along the stripe direction as we show using scanning tunnelling microscopy. Our work not only provides a playground for investigating further the properties of directional massless Dirac fermions, but also introduces a unique component with one-dimensional long-range order for engineering nano-electronic devices based on heterostructures of vdW materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Supernovae at the Highest Angular Resolution

The study of supernovae (SNe) and their environments in host galaxies at the highest possible angular resolution in a number of wavelength regimes is providing vital clues to the nature of their progenitor stars.

supernovae raido astronomy VLBI X-ray Astronomy Ga↗

Supernovae at the Highest Angular Resolution

The study of supernovae (SNe) and their environments in host galaxies at the highest possible angular resolution in a number of wavelength regimes is providing vital clues to the nature of their progenitor stars.

Telescope↗