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At least 307 records · Page 17

Theory of two-meson photo- and electroproduction off the nucleon

Using the reaction γN → ππN as the paradigmatic topological framework, a field-theoretical description of the electromagnetic production of two pseudoscalar mesons off the nucleon is derived and applied to photo- and electroproduction processes, assuming only one-photon exchange for the latter. The dynamics of all explicit three-point interaction mechanisms of the ππN system is accounted for by the Faddeev-type ordering structure of the Alt-Grassberger-Sandhas equations. The modifications necessary for incorporating n-meson vertices for n ≥ 4 are discussed. The formulation is valid for hadronic two-point and three-point functions dressed by arbitrary (even nonlinear) internal mechanisms provided all associated electromagnetic currents are constructed to satisfy their respective (generalized) Ward-Takahashi identities. Coupling the photon to the Faddeev structure of the underlying hadronic two-pion production mechanisms results in a natural expansion of the full two-pion photoproduction current $M$$^{μ}_{ππ}$ in terms of multiple dressed loops involving two-body subsystem scattering amplitudes of the ππN system that preserves gauge invariance as a matter of course order by order in the number of (dressed) loops. A closed-form expression is presented for the entire gauge-invariant current $M$$^{μ}_{ππ}$ with complete three-body dynamics. Individually gauge-invariant truncations of the full dynamics most relevant for practical applications at the no-loop, one-loop, and two-loop levels are discussed in detail. An approximation scheme to the full two-meson amplitude for calculational purposes is also presented. It approximates, systematically, the full amplitude to any desired order of expansion in the underlying hadronic two-body amplitude. Furthermore, it allows for the approximate incorporation of all neglected higher-order mechanisms in terms of a locally gauge-invariant phenomenological remainder current.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Transport of hot carriers in plasmonic nanostructures

Plasmonic hot carrier devices extract excited carriers from metal nanostructures before equilibration and have the potential to surpass semiconductor light absorbers. However their efficiencies have so far remained well below theoretical limits, which necessitates quantitative prediction of carrier transport and energy loss in plasmonic structures to identify and overcome bottlenecks in carrier harvesting. Here, we present a theoretical and computational framework, nonequilibrium scattering in space and energy (NESSE), to predict the spatial evolution of carrier energy distributions that combines the best features of phase-space (Boltzmann) and particle-based (Monte Carlo) methods. Within the NESSE framework, we bridge first-principles electronic structure predictions of plasmon decay and carrier collision integrals at the atomic scale, with electromagnetic field simulations at the nano- to mesoscale. Finally, we apply NESSE to predict spatially-resolved energy distributions of photoexcited carriers that impact the surface of experimentally realizable plasmonic nanostructures at length scales ranging from tens to several hundreds of nanometers, enabling first-principles design of hot carrier devices.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Observation of inclined EeV air showers with the radio detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

With the Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) of the Pierre Auger Observatory, we have observed the radio emission from 561 extensive air showers with zenith angles between 60o and 84o. In contrast to air showers with more vertical incidence, these inclined air showers illuminate large ground areas of several km2 with radio signals detectable in the 30 to 80 MHz band. A comparison of the measured radio-signal amplitudes with Monte Carlo simulations of a subset of 50 events for which we reconstruct the energy using the Auger surface detector shows agreement within the uncertainties of the current analysis. As expected for forward-beamed radio emission undergoing no significant absorption or scattering in the atmosphere, the area illuminated by radio signals grows with the zenith angle of the air shower. Inclined air showers with EeV energies are thus measurable with sparse radio-antenna arrays with grid sizes of a km or more. This is particularly attractive as radio detection provides direct access to the energy in the electromagnetic cascade of an air shower, which in case of inclined air showers is not accessible by arrays of particle detectors on the ground.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Electron scattering on A = 3 nuclei from quantum Monte Carlo based approaches

We perform first-principle calculations of electron-nucleus scattering on 3 He and 3 H using the Green's function Monte Carlo method and two approaches based on the factorization of the final hadronic state: the spectral-function formalism and the short-time approximation. These three methods are benchmarked among each other and compared to the experimental data for the longitudinal and transverse electromagnetic response functions of 3 He, and the inclusive cross sections of both 3 He and 3 H. Since these three approaches are based on the same description of nuclear dynamics of the initial target state, comparing their results enables a precise quantification of the uncertainties inherent to factorization schemes. At sufficiently large values of the momentum transfer, we find an excellent agreement of the Green's function Monte Carlo calculation with experimental data and with both the spectral-function formalism and the short-time approximation. Here, we also analyze the relevance of relativistic effects, whose inclusion becomes crucial to explain data at high momentum and energy transfer.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Neutrino electromagnetic properties and the weak mixing angle at the LHC Forward Physics Facility

The LHC produces an intense beam of highly energetic neutrinos of all three flavors in the forward direction, and the Forward Physics Facility (FPF) has been proposed to house a suite of experiments taking advantage of this opportunity. In this study, we investigate the FPF’s potential to probe the neutrino electromagnetic properties, including neutrino millicharge, magnetic moment, and charge radius. We find that, due to the large flux of tau neutrinos at the LHC, the FPF detectors will be able to provide more sensitive constraints on the tau neutrino magnetic moment and millicharge than previous measurements at DONUT, by searching for excess in low recoil energy electron scattering events. We also find that, by precisely measuring the rate of neutral current deep inelastic scattering events, the FPF detectors have the potential to obtain the strongest experimental bounds on the neutrino charge radius for the electron neutrino, and one of the leading bounds for the muon neutrino flavor. The same signature could also be used to measure the weak mixing angle, and we estimate that sin 2 θ W could be measured to about 3% precision at a scale Q ∼ 10 GeV , shedding new light on the longstanding NuTeV anomaly. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

Abraham, Roshan Mammen (ORCID:0000000346783808)↗

Electromagnetic Response of Superconducting RF Cavities

Recently reported anomalies in frequency shift of order δƒ ~ 0.1–10 kHz for Niobium SRF cavities in a narrow temperature region near T c ≃ 9 K are sensitive to the surface preparation and Nitrogen doping. We developed methods for calculating the surface current response of Nb SRF cavities, as well as the resonant frequency shift and quality factor, as functions of temperature, frequency and disorder based on the Keldysh formulation of the theory for nonequilibrium superconductivity coupled with Maxwell’s theory and boundary conditions for the response functions and electromagnetic field. We show that the anomaly is sensitive to impurity disorder. Our results for the anomaly in the frequency shift are in good agreement with experimental results for Nb with an anisotropic gap on the Fermi surface and inhomogeneous non-magnetic disorder. We also show that the quality factor as a function of the impurity scattering rate is maximum for in SRF cavities with intermediate disorder, ℏ/τΔ~O(1) with the maximum $Q$ decreasing with increasing frequency.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Electron scattering on ${\mathbf{A=3}}$ nuclei from quantum Monte Carlo based approaches

We perform first-principle calculations of electron-nucleus scattering on $^3$He and $^3$H using the Green's function Monte Carlo method and two approaches based on the factorization of the final hadronic state: the spectral-function formalism and the short-time approximation. These three methods are benchmarked among each other and compared to the experimental data for the longitudinal and transverse electromagnetic response functions of $^3$He, and the inclusive cross sections of both $^3$He and $^3$H. Since these three approaches are based on the same description of nuclear dynamics of the initial target state, comparing their results enables a precise quantification of the uncertainties inherent to factorization schemes. At sufficiently large values of the momentum transfer, we find an excellent agreement of the Green's function Monte Carlo calculation with experimental data and with both the spectral-function formalism and the short-time approximation. We also analyze the relevance of relativistic effects, whose inclusion becomes crucial to explain data at high momentum and energy transfer.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Measurement of the Neutron Electromagnetic Form Factor Ratio at High Momentum Transfer

The inner structure of the nucleon (proton and neutron) remains a topic of great interest in nuclear and particle physics, after many decades of study. For example, understanding the quark-gluon dynamics inside the nucleon would shed light on how 99% of the nucleon mass is created. The neutron electromagnetic form factors, Gn E and Gn M , give important insights into the neutron structure. The Super BigBite Spectrometer (SBS) program at Jefferson Lab (JLab) seeks to extend the form factor measurements for both the proton and the neutron. The neutron electric form actor, Gn E , has been historically difficult to measure due to the short lifetime of the free neutron and the small value of Gn E . The GEn-II experiment is part of the SBS program and seeks to measure Gn E , significantly increasing the high momentum transfer coverage. A newly designed polarized 3He target increased the figure of merit by three times compared to previous measurements. The analysis of this data is especially challenging due to the unprecedented high-rate environment caused by the open nature of the spectrometer with a direct line of sight to the target. This required developing new Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) particle trackers which can cover large areas demanded by this setup and handle particle rates up to 500 kHz/cm2. Rates this high over a large area is unprecedented in particle tracking systems and came with a number of challenges. Data taken in the SBS program was critical to understanding hardware and software solutions that improved the track reconstruction efficiency to be >97% with a position resolution of 70 ?m. In previous experiments the proton electromagnetic form factors, Gp E and Gp M were measured up to Q2 = 8.5 GeV2 and Q2 = 30 GeV2, respectively, while Gn E has only been measured up to Q2 = 3.4 GeV2. The GEn-II experiment has measured the neutron form factor ratio, Gn E/Gn M, at Q2 values of 2.90, 6.50, and 9.47 GeV2 by scattering a polarized electron beam with a polarized 3He target, used here as an effective polarized neutron target, and measuring the double spin asymmetry of the cross section. Previous Gn E measurements do not extend above Q2 = 3.4 GeV2, and therefore this analysis has extended the world data by almost three times. The background correction is especially difficult at the higher Q2 settings leading to large systematic errors. As very exploratory results from this early analysis of the data, we find for Q2 = 2.90 GeV2, Gn E = 0.0157 ±stat 0.0016 ±sys 0.0011, for Q2 = 6.50 GeV2, Gn E = 0.0067 ±stat 0.0019 ±sys 0.0005, and for Q2 = 9.46 GeV2, Gn E = 0.0046 ±stat 0.0023 ±sys 0.0005. These results are compared to predictions from the Dyson-Schwinger Equations (DSE) model and a Relativistic Constituent Quark Model (RCQM).

Jeffas, Sean↗

Substrate-enhanced photothermal nano-imaging of surface polaritons in monolayer graphene

Surface polaritons comprise a wealth of light–matter interactions with deep sub-wavelength scale confinement of electromagnetic modes. However, their nanoscale localized dissipation and thermalization processes are not readily accessible experimentally. Here, we introduce photothermal force microscopy to image surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in monolayer graphene through their non-radiative SiO2 substrate dissipation. We demonstrate the real-space SPP imaging via photo-induced atomic force detection, and from comparison with scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy imaging attribute the force response to substrate dissipation-enhanced thermal expansion. This work illustrates that nano-optical tip–sample induced dissipative forces facilitate a direct mechanical detection of surface polariton interactions with monolayer sensitivity.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Image quality indicator and dechromator setup for static LANSCE proton radiography experiment

This document describes a static geometry consisting of a sphere of gold and Ti-6Al-4V alloy, along with an energy-loss matching dechromator composed of polycarbonate, to field with the X3 electromagnetic magnifying lens at LANSCE during the next beam cycle. This static configuration will allow us to: (1) characterize the system’s resolution at the material interface between the gold and titanium alloy, and test the image quality for fine features associated with the screws used to fasten the titanium alloy hemispheres; (2) tune our models of proton scattering and imaging for these materials; and (3) test a procedure to align the polycarbonate dechromator and the sphere within the proton beamline. The data will also be suitable for validation of the software options available for proton radiography simulations.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Quantum simulation of nuclear inelastic scattering

We present a time-dependent quantum algorithm for nuclear inelastic scattering in the time-dependent basis function on qubits approach. This algorithm aims to quantum simulate a subset of the nuclear inelastic scattering problems that are of physical interest in which the internal degrees of freedom of the reaction system are excited by time-dependent external interactions. We expect that our algorithm will enable an exponential speedup in simulating the dynamics of the subset of the inelastic scattering problems, which would also be advantageous for the applications to more complicated scattering problems. For a demonstration problem, we solve for the Coulomb excitation of the deuteron, where the quantum simulations are performed with IBM Qiskit.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Electromagnetic currents for dressed hadrons

We propose an extension of the minimal-substitution prescription for coupling the electromagnetic field to hadronic systems with internal structure. The resulting rules of extended substitution necessarily distinguish between couplings to scalar and Dirac particles. Moreover, they allow for the incorporation of electromagnetic form factors for virtual photons in an effective phenomenological framework. Applied to pions and nucleons, assumed to be fully dressed to all orders, the resulting dressed currents are shown to be locally gauge invariant. Moreover, half-on-shell expressions of (hadron propagator)×(electromagnetic current) needed in all descriptions of physical processes will lose all information about hadronic dressing for real photons. The Ball-Chiu ansatz for the spin-1/2 current is seen to suffer from an incomplete coupling procedure where some essential aspects of the Dirac particle are effectively treated as those of a scalar particle. Applied to real Compton scattering on pions and nucleons, we find that all dressing information cancels exactly when external hadrons are on shell, leaving only gauge-invariant bare Born-type contributions with physical masses. Furthermore, nontrivial descriptions necessarily require contact-type two-photon processes obtained by hadrons looping around two photon insertion points.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

An inverse free electron laser acceleration-driven Compton scattering X-ray source

Abstract The generation of X-rays and γ-rays based on synchrotron radiation from free electrons, emitted in magnet arrays such as undulators, forms the basis of much of modern X-ray science. This approach has the drawback of requiring very high energy, up to the multi-GeV-scale, electron beams, to obtain the required photon energy. Due to the limit in accelerating gradients in conventional particle accelerators, reaching high energy typically demands use of instruments exceeding 100’s of meters in length. Compact, less costly, monochromatic X-ray sources based on very high field acceleration and very short period undulators, however, may enable diverse, paradigm-changing X-ray applications ranging from novel X-ray therapy techniques to active interrogation of sensitive materials, by making them accessible in energy reach, cost and size. Such compactness and enhanced energy reach may be obtained by an all-optical approach, which employs a laser-driven high gradient accelerator based on inverse free electron laser (IFEL), followed by a collision point for inverse Compton scattering (ICS), a scheme where a laser is used to provide undulator fields. We present an experimental proof-of-principle of this approach, where a TW-class CO 2 laser pulse is split in two, with half used to accelerate a high quality electron beam up to 84 MeV through the IFEL interaction, and the other half acts as an electromagnetic undulator to generate up to 13 keV X-rays via ICS. These results demonstrate the feasibility of this scheme, which can be joined with other techniques such as laser recirculation to yield very compact photon sources, with both high peak and average brilliance, and with energies extending from the keV to MeV scale. Further, use of the IFEL acceleration with the ICS interaction produces a train of high intensity X-ray pulses, thus enabling a unique tool synchronized with a laser pulse for ultra-fast strobe, pump-probe experimental scenarios.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Enhanced active-sterile neutrino polarizability at the intensity frontier

Electromagnetic probes of neutrinos can provide insights into physics beyond the Standard Model. Among the possible electromagnetic interactions of neutrinos is neutrino polarizability, a dimension-7 effective operator that couples two neutrinos to two photons. In this manuscript, we study a realization of the neutrino polarizability operator in which one of the active neutrinos is replaced by a sterile neutrino. We derive new constraints on this active-sterile neutrino polarizability from its contribution to neutrino-nucleus scattering with a single photon in the final state at neutrino experiments. We show that a realization of this operator via a light mediator can explain the MiniBooNE low-energy excess while remaining consistent with other experimental constraints. Finally, we comment on additional model realizations of this higher-dimensional operator.

Neutrinos↗

Interaction of Inner Heliosheath Ions with Electromagnetic Ion Cyclotron Waves

Abstract Inner heliosheath (IHS) ions are expected to be exposed to various waves, shocks, and turbulence, which can affect ion distributions and thus their charge-exchange rates with interstellar neutral atoms. This work addresses the potential significance of electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves under expected IHS conditions. From a kinetic dispersion relation, we find the possibility of frequent triggering of EMIC instability in the IHS. The threshold anisotropy of proton temperatures required for the instability is small, ( T ⊥ – T ∣∣ )/ T ∣∣ ≈ 0.1 or less, mainly due to high plasma β (ratio of the plasma to magnetic pressures). Numerical calculations on the scattering of ions (protons, He + , and He 2+ with energy of 0.01–50 keV) based on two models for EMIC waves with a moderate intensity indicate significant scattering in the pitch angle (mostly a few tens of degrees) and energy (mostly a few tens of percent) although details depend on the energy and pitch angle of each species and adopted EMIC wave models. This occurs on a short timescale (<100 times the gyro-period of each ion species). Resonant scattering in a few to a few tens of keV (corresponding to the expected pickup ion energy in the IHS) is easily expected unless the wavenumber is too large. The scattering effect is distinguished among different species such that for lower gyrofrequency ions (He + versus He 2+ and He 2+ versus protons), the main scattering effect moves toward a lower energy domain. All these results imply continuous disturbance of ion distributions by possibly prevailing EMIC waves in the IHS.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Neutral Pion Electroproduction and development of a Neutral Particle Spectrometer

Protons and neutrons, i.e. nucleons, are the basic building blocks of the matter in the visible universe. The strong force binds the nucleons to form nuclei. The electromagnetic force forms the atoms by binding the electrons with the nuclei. The electromagnetic interaction is well understood by Quantum Electrodynamics (QED), which shows the most precise predictability amongst all the theories in physics. In QED, charges interact with each other by exchanging photons. The Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) describes the strong interaction. Its degrees of freedom are quarks and gluons, the fundamental constituents of the nucleons. The quarks interact with each other by exchanging gluons. However, unlike QED, the gluons interact amongst themselves. This feature of self bindings of the gluons confines the quarks and gluons in the nucleons/hadrons, never to be seen as free. In order to study some of the features of QCD, such as confinement or the structure of the nucleon, one usually needs to rely on experiments. Electromagnetic probes, governed by the well-understood QED, are excellent tools to probe the nucleon. In general, different scales, e.g. electron beam energies, probe different regions of the nucleon. At low energy, of the order of a few GeV, the electron probes the nucleon in the valence quark region. As its energy increases, the electron probes the sea quark and gluon regions. The study of the nucleon structure in all these regions is needed to fully understand QCD. Form factors and parton distribution functions measured from elastic scattering and deep inelastic scattering of leptons off nucleons have provided a partial view of the internal structure of the nucleon. In the mid-1990s, Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs) were developed. These new objects are a generalization of the form factors and parton distribution functions, but contain richer information on the nucleon internal structure. GPDs are accessible experimentally by deep exclusive reactions. Deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) and deeply virtual meson production (DVMP) are some examples. The first dedicated DVCS/DVMP experiment took place in 2004 in Hall A at The Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, i.e. Jefferson Lab, in Virginia, U.S.A. A new DVCS/DVMP experiment, after the beam energy upgrade of Jefferson Lab, was carried out in Hall A in a wider kinematic range. Its data were taken from 2014 to 2016. In Hall C at Jefferson Lab, the next DVCS/DVMP experiment will take place. The Hall C experiment will further exploit the kinematic range with higher precision. A Neutral Particle Spectrometer (NPS) is in development to measure DVCS/DVMP events under high background conditions. Jefferson Lab will provide the highest precision data in the valence quark region for various exclusive reactions. The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) is a future experimental facility currently planned to start operations around 2030 in the U.S.A. Its high energy and high luminosity will probe the sea quark and gluon regions providing answers to the outstanding questions of QCD, in particular in the region where matter is dominated by gluons. First of all, this document describes the data analysis and results of the Hall A neutral pion electroproduction off the proton, from the data taken in 2014-2016. Later, some of the developments towards the construction of the electromagnetic calorimeter of the NPS for the upcoming DVCS/DVMP experiment in Hall C are presented. Finally, one of the candidate materials for the EIC calorimeter, a glass scintillator, will be briefly introduced. I have participated to all these projects, in collaboration with many colleagues. I present in this thesis my contributions to each of these projects. My contributions to the neutral pion data analysis were focused on background subtractions on the calorimeter, acceptance calculations, and the estimation of the systematic uncertainty associated to the event selection cuts. Some necessary information on calibrations of the detectors and data analysis methods are also described. In the NPS project, I performed background dose calculations and energy and position resolution studies of the calorimeter, all using Monte Carlo simulations, with realistic geometries of the experimental apparatus. Characterization of the crystals of the calorimeter was also done. Additionally, I measured the radiation hardness of some glass scintillator in its early stage of development. In order to have a future reference when the glass calorimeter prototype will be tested, I simulated the energy resolution of the prototype.

Ko, Ho-San↗

Plasmonic Lenses for Tunable Ultrafast Electron Emitters at the Nanoscale

Simultaneous spatio-temporal confinement of energetic electron pulses to femtosecond and nanometer scales is a topic of great interest in the scientific community, given the potential im- pact of such development on a wide spectrum of scientific and industrial applications. For example, in ultrafast electron scattering, nanoscale probes would enable accurate maps of structural dynamics in materials with nanoscale heterogeneity, thereby understanding the role of boundaries and defects on macroscopic properties. On the other hand, advances in this field are mostly limited by the electron source brightness and size. We present the design, fabrication, and optical characterization of bullseye plasmonic lenses for next-generation ultrafast electron sources. Using electromagnetic simulations, we examine how the interplay between light-plasmon coupling, plasmon propagation, dispersion, and resonance governs the properties of the photoemitted electron pulse. We also illus- trate how the pulse duration and strength can be tuned by geometric design, and predict sub-10 fs pulses with nanoscale diameter can be achieved. We then fabricated lenses in gold films and char- acterized their plasmonic properties with cathodoluminescence spectromicroscopy, demonstrating suitable plasmonic behavior for ultrafast, nanoscale photoemission.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Evaluation of the Inclusive Electron Scattering Observables in the Resonance Region from the Experimental Data

The method for evaluation of inclusive electron scattering observables in the resonance region from the experimental data is presented. The computer codes in the web page allow user to evaluate inclusive electron scattering, virtual photon-proton cross sections and the F{sub 1} and F{sub 2} structure functions at the invariant masses of the final hadrons 1.0 < W < 4.0 GeV and at photon virtualities 0.5 < Q {sup 2} < 7.0 GeV{sup 2}. The developed approach is of interest for analyses of the experimental data on exploration of the hadron structure in the experiments with electromagnetic probes.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗