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DOE OSTI2023

Analysis of Unpolarised p+p¿ Photoproduction with the GlueX Experiment

This thesis presents measurements of spin-density matrix elements in unpolarised p+p? photoproduction on a proton target. The dominant resonance contribution to the dipion system is the r(770) meson. Due to the large production cross section for this resonance, a valid comparison can be made between the obtained final results and r(770) spin-density matrix elements measured previously with other experiments. The measurement was performed over the 3:0 ? 11:6 GeV beam energy regime, which is a more extensive energy range than has ever been studied previously for the r(770). Results were obtained by analysing data from the GlueX experiment based at Jefferson Lab. Extended maximum likelihood fits were applied to extract three spin-density matrix elements using Markov chain Monte Carlo based parameter estimations. This was performed using various binning configurations to probe the energy, mass, and four-momentum transfer dependence of the determined physics observables. Spin-density matrix elements are shown to be consistent with the model of s-channel helicity conservation at low ?t. The effects of pomeron and f2 exchanges are clearly visible in the energy dependence of the measured observables. These observations provide valuable insights into the relative strengths of both processes as a function of the photon energy, and may enable theorists to disentangle the f2=P coupling ratio. Spin-density matrix elements are seen to be highly dependent on the reconstructed resonance mass. This observation is likely to be a result of non-resonant S-wave background processes, and emphasises the need for a more detailed model of the p+p? angular distribution that considers all of the competing angular momentum components that contribute to the measured final state. The statistical precision of measurements performed for this thesis surpass what was achievable in previous studies of the r(770) by several orders of magnitude. Studies of the energy and four-momentum transfer dependence, and insights into the effects of non r(770) background contributions provide valuable input for production models. This will help inform the choice of wave-sets used for partial wave analyses, supporting GlueX in its search for exotic hybrid meson states.

Fitches, James↗
DOE OSTI2025

Design and Construction of a High-Resolution Hodoscope for the GlueX Experiment with High-Statistics Analysis of the p0, ¿, and ¿1 Photoproduction Cross Sections from the RadPhi Experiment

Differential cross sections for forward-angle photoproduction of p0, ¿, and ¿ 1 pseudoscalar mesons were measured using data from the RadPhi experiment conducted in Hall B at Jef ferson Lab. RadPhi utilized a tagged bremsstrahlung photon beam incident on a stationary 9Be target, with a detector system configured to trigger on a recoil proton in coincidence with multiple neutral showers in the calorimeter. Events were reconstructed and subjected to kinematic constraints, with background suppressed via sideband subtraction guided by Monte Carlo modeling of background contributions. Cross sections were extracted over the photon energy range 4.4– 5.4 GeV and binned in invariant momentum transfer t, providing measurements from one of the first high-statistics experiments of forward ¿ and ¿1 pro duction from a nuclear target at these energies. Acceptance corrections were applied using a detailed GEANT-based simulation of the detector geometry and response. The resulting cross sections are consistent with 2020 CLAS results, when scaled by the number of protons in beryllium, and show broad agreement with other data and theoretical models. In parallel, a high-resolution photon tagger detector, the Tagger Microscope (TAGM), was designed, constructed, and commissioned for the GlueX experiment in Hall D at Jefferson Lab. The TAGM was developed to provide high-rate tagging capability in the coherent bremsstrahlung peak by detecting post-bremsstrahlung electrons across a one GeV range along the focal plane of the tagging spectrometer. The detector consists of a 5ˆ102 array of 2ˆ2 mm2 square BCF-20 plastic scintillating fibers thermally fused to BCF-98 light guide fibers optically coupled to silicon photomultipliers. These fibers are mounted in a precision machined framework enabling fine positional adjustments to maintain precise alignment with post-bremsstrahlung electron trajectories, while ensuring mechanical rigidity, thermal stability, optical isolation, minimal inactive area, and radiation shielding for electronics. The construction effort involved extensive testing of fiber quality, light transmission, thermal fusing, radiation hardness, and defect analysis using SEM and EDX techniques. Following its installation and commissioning, the TAGM became a critical component of the GlueX beamline, enabling high-rate tagging essential for studies of hybrid mesons and gluonic ex citations.

McIntyre, James [Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs, CT ↗
DOE OSTI2026

Search for the 𝑌⁡(2175) in the Photoproduction Cross Section Measurement of 𝛾⁢𝑝 → 𝜙⁢𝜋 + ⁢𝜋 − ⁢𝑝 at GlueX

Based on 334 pb −1 of photoproduction data collected with the GlueX detector at Jefferson Lab, we have measured for the first time the cross section of the exclusive reaction 𝛾+𝑝→𝜙⁡(1020)⁢𝜋 + ⁢𝜋 − ⁢𝑝 by reconstructing the final state 𝐾 +⁢ 𝐾 − ⁢𝜋 + ⁢𝜋 − ⁢𝑝 produced with a photon beam of energies between 8.0 and 11.6 GeV. Based on the measured differential cross section, we have performed a search for the strangeoniumlike exotic candidate 𝑌⁡(2175), recently renamed to 𝜙⁡(2170). This state has been reported by different 𝑒 + ⁢𝑒 − annihilation experiments and it is addressed here for the first time in a photoproduction experiment. We do not find evidence for this state when using the resonance parameters quoted by the Particle Data Group and provide upper limits on the photoproduction cross section. Instead, we find a structure at a mass of 𝑚⁡(𝜙⁢𝜋 + ⁢𝜋 − ) = 2.24 GeV/𝑐 2 with a statistical significance of about 5⁢𝜎. The parameters of this structure differ from those quoted by the Particle Data Group for the 𝜙⁡(2170) and are consistent with a previous observation in 𝑒 + ⁢𝑒 − annihilation. In addition, there is evidence for a second structure at 1.82 GeV/𝑐 2 .

Exotic mesons↗
DOE OSTI2024

Upper Limit on the Photoproduction Cross Section of the Spin-Exotic $π$ 1 (1600)

Here, the spin-exotic hybrid meson π 1 (1600) is predicted to have a large decay rate to the ωππ final state. Using 76.6 pb -1 of data collected with the GlueX detector, we measure the cross sections for the reactions γp → ωπ + π - p, γp → ωπ 0 π 0 p, and γp → ωπ - π 0 Δ ++ in the range E γ = 8 - 10 GeV. Using isospin conservation, we set the first upper limits on the photoproduction cross sections of the π$^0_1$(1600) and $π^-_1$(1600). We combine these limits with lattice calculations of decay widths and find that photoproduction of η' π is the most sensitive two-body system to search for the π 1 (1600).

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Status and Performance of the GlueX DIRC

The GlueX experiment is located in experimental Hall D at Jefferson Lab (JLab) and provides a unique capability to search for hybrid mesons in high-energy photoproduction, utilizing a $\sim$9 GeV linearly polarized photon beam. Since 2020 a Detector of Internally Reflected Cherenkov light (DIRC) has been in use at GlueX, utilizing components from the decommissioned BaBar DIRC. In this contribution we will discuss the status and performance of the GlueX DIRC with the data collected to date, including recent developments in the use of machine learning for particle identification.

Stevens, Justin [College of William and Mary, Will↗
DOE OSTI2021

Commissioning the DIRC Detector and Searching for Axion-like Particles at GlueX

This thesis centers around problems in the study of the strong nuclear force. The GlueX DIRC, a Cherenkov radiation-based detector, was proposed to upgrade the particle identification capability of the GlueX experiment, which aims to perform quantitative tests of Quantum Chromodynamics in the nonperturbative regime by searching for and studying hybrid mesons. This thesis describes the construction, commissioning, reconstruction, and calibration of the GlueX DIRC detector. Originally proposed to solve the strong CP problem, axions and axion-like particles are hypothetical pseudoscalar particles found in many proposed extensions to the Standard Model of particle physics. This thesis presents a search for photoproduction of axion-like particles using data in photon-proton interactions collected by the GlueX experiment at Jefferson Laboratory in the $\gamma\gamma$ and $\pi^+\pi^-\pi^0$ final states of the axion-like particles. In addition, the Monte Carlo modeling of the strong interaction at low energies leads to challenges known as the event generator tuning problem. This thesis presents a novel approach to the Monte Carlo event generator tuning problem using Bayesian optimization.

Yang, Yunjie↗
DOE OSTI2025

PHOTOPRODUCTION OF np^0 BY DOUBLE-REGGE EXCHANGE

The GlueX experiment is a photoproduction experiment based at Jeferson Lab in Newport News, Virginia. A major aim of GlueX is to look for hybrid mesons, which are a quark and an anti-quark bound by an excited gluonic field that contributes to the quantum numbers. The reaction ¿p ¿ ¿e0p is of particular interest since ¿e is a potential decay mode of states with exotic quantum numbers JPC =1¿+, which are forbidden in the constituent quark model. Finding such a resonance would be a clear sign of non-quark model physics. In concert with the Joint Physics Analysis Center we have developed a model for double-Regge interactions in this channel. These non-resonant processes generate asymmetries in the distributions of decay angles, which could be falsely attributed to the interference between exotic odd partial waves and even partial waves. In previous searches for light exotics we have seen evidence for the necessity of accounting for the presence of these non-resonant productions. We present a double-Regge model for photoproduction of ¿e0 and the application of it by measuring the asymmetry of ¿e0 production in the double Regge limit, as well as a comparison of the measured results to current theoretical predictions.

Barsotti, Rebecca [Indiana Univ. Southeast, New Al↗
DOE OSTI2024

Why quarkonium hybrid coupling to two $S$-wave heavy-light mesons is not suppressed

We examine the couplings of quarkonium hybrids to heavy-light meson pairs in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation for QCD. The lowest hybrid multiplets consist of bound states of the Π u and Σ$^{-}_{u}$ potentials. We find that the Σ$^{-}_{u}$ potential can couple to pairs of S-wave mesons through string breaking, while the Π u potential cannot. From this observation, we derive model-independent selection rules that contradict previous expectations that quarkonium hybrids are forbidden to decay into pairs of S-wave mesons. These Born-Oppenheimer selection rules are consistent with the partial decay widths of the lowest charmonium hybrid with exotic quantum numbers J PC = 1 -+ recently calculated using lattice QCD.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Photoproduction of the Λ(1520) hyperon with a 9 GeV photon beam at GlueX

The GlueX experiment is located at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) in Newport News, VA, USA. It features a hermetic 4π detector with excellent tracking and calorimetry capabilities. Its 9 GeV linearly polarized photon beam is produced from the 12 GeV electron beam, delivered by JLab’s Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF), via bremsstrahlung on a thin diamond and is incident on a LH2 target. GlueX recently finished its first data taking period and published first results. The main goal of GlueX is to measure gluonic excitations of mesons. These so-called hybrid or exotic mesons are predicted by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) but haven’t been experimentally confirmed yet. They can have quantum numbers not accessible by ordinary quark-antiquark pairs which helps in identifying them using partial wave analysis techniques. The search for exotic mesons requires a very good understanding of photoproduction processes in a wide range of final states, one of them being pK + K - which contains many meson and baryon reactions. The Λ(1520) is a prominent hyperon resonance in this final state and is the subject of this presentation. This talk will give an introduction to the GlueX experiment and show preliminary results for the photoproduction of the Λ(1520) hyperon. The measurement of important observables like the photon beam asymmetry and spin-density matrix elements will be discussed and an outlook to possible measurements of further hyperon states in the pK + K - final state will be given.

Pauli, Peter↗
DOE OSTI2023

Partial Wave Analysis of Strange Mesons Decaying to K+p+p- in the Reaction ¿p ¿ K+p+p-¿(1520) and the Commissioning of the GlueX DIRC Detector

Hadron spectroscopy is a cornerstone of our understanding of the strong nuclear interactions. Studying the hadron spectrum led to the postulation of quarks and gluons, and the development of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the theory of the strong nuclear force. Today hadron spectroscopy provides an important test of QCD, particularly in the non-perturbative energy regime. One such test is the existence of hybrid hadrons that have gluonic degrees of freedom, e.g. q ?qg states, that are allowed by QCD but have remained elusive in experimental searches. The GlueX experiment located at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, is designed to map the light meson spectrum, including hybrid mesons, produced by a linearly polarized photon beam that is scattered off of a liquid hydrogen target. This dissertation concerns the installation and commissioning of the GlueX DIRC upgrade and the analysis of three reactions measured by the GlueX experiment. The GlueX DIRC is a particle identification detector installed as an upgrade to the GlueX experiment in 2019 to improve the experiment?s ability to distinguish pions and kaons. The DIRC uses Cherenkov photons radiated by charged particles that travel faster than the speed of light in the detector medium to determine the velocity of said particles. The velocity measurement is used in conjunction with momentum measurements from other detectors to determine the mass of the particle. The DIRC will be essential to the future of strange meson spectroscopy in GlueX. The reactions ?p ? K+K??+??p, ?p ? K+K??0?0p, ?p ? K+K??0?p were initially chosen for this analysis to search for the hybrid meson candidate ?(2170) and related resonances. The ?(2170) has been observed in e+e? collider experiments decaying to K+K??+?? and K+K??0?0, among other final states. The ?(2170) was not observed in this analysis. The reaction ?p ? K+?+???(1520), a subset of the ?p ? K+K??+??p reaction, was analyzed with a Partial Wave Analysis (PWA) in order to study strange mesons that decay to K+?+??. In the PWA, a useful model for the angular distributions was found but no significant structures could be observed due to statistical limitations.

Hurley, Andrew↗
DOE OSTI2024

Model-independent predictions for decays of hidden-heavy hadrons into pairs of heavy hadrons

Hidden-heavy hadrons can decay into pairs of heavy hadrons through transitions from confining Born-Oppenheimer potentials to hadron-pair potentials with the same Born-Oppenheimer quantum numbers. The transitions are also constrained by conservation of angular momentum and parity. From these constraints, we derive model-independent selection rules for decays of hidden-heavy hadrons into pairs of heavy hadrons. The coupling potentials are expressed as sums of products of Born-Oppenheimer transition amplitudes and angular-momentum coefficients. If there is a single dominant Born-Oppenheimer transition amplitude, it factors out of the coupling potentials between hidden-heavy hadrons in the same Born-Oppenheimer multiplet and pairs of heavy hadrons in specific heavy-quark-spin-symmetry doublets. If furthermore the kinetic energies of the heavy hadrons are much larger than their spin splittings, we obtain analytic expressions for the relative partial decay rates in terms of Wigner 6 j and 9 j symbols. We consider in detail the decays of quarkonia and quarkonium hybrids into the lightest heavy-meson pairs. For quarkonia, our model-independent selection rules and relative partial decay rates agree with previous results from quark-pair-creation models in simple cases and give stronger results in other cases. For quarkonium hybrids, we find disagreement even in simple cases. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Elliptic anisotropy measurement of the f 0 (980) hadron in proton-lead collisions and evidence for its quark-antiquark composition

Despite the f 0 (980) hadron having been discovered half a century ago, the question about its quark content has not been settled: it might be an ordinary quark-antiquark ($q\bar{q}$) meson, a tetraquark ($q\bar{q}$$q\bar{q}$) exotic state, a kaon-antikaon ($K\bar{K}$) molecule, or a quark-antiquark-gluon ($q\bar{q}$g) hybrid. This paper reports strong evidence that the f 0 (980) state is an ordinary $q\bar{q}$ meson, inferred from the scaling of elliptic anisotropies (v 2 ) with the number of constituent quarks (n q ), as empirically established using conventional hadrons in relativistic heavy ion collisions. The f 0 (980) state is reconstructed via its dominant decay channel f 0 (980) → π + π − , in proton-lead collisions recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC, and its v 2 is measured as a function of transverse momentum (p T ). It is found that the n q = 2 ($q\bar{q}$ state) hypothesis is favored over n q = 4 ($q\bar{q}$$q\bar{q}$ or $K\bar{K}$ states) by 7.7, 6.3, or 3.1 standard deviations in the p T < 10, 8, or 6 GeV/c ranges, respectively, and over n q = 3 ($q\bar{q}$g hybrid state) by 3.5 standard deviations in the p T < 8 GeV/c range. This result represents the first determination of the quark content of the f 0 (980) state, made possible by using a novel approach, and paves the way for similar studies of other exotic hadron candidates.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Constraints on initial baryon stopping and equation of state from directed flow

Our investigation focuses on the rapidity-dependent directed flow, v 1 (y), of identified hadrons in Au+Au collisions across a broad range of √S NN from 7.7 to 200 GeV. Employing a (3+1)-dimensional hybrid framework, our study successfully reproduces the characteristic features of the measured v 1 (y) for both mesons and baryons across the considered beam energies. Notably, our analysis reveals the constraining power of baryonic v 1 (y) on the initial baryon stopping mechanism. Together with mesonic v 1 (y), the directed flow serves as a crucial tool for probing the equation of state governing dense nuclear matter at finite chemical potentials.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

The impact of $γN$ and $γ^∗N$ interactions on our understanding of nucleon excitations

We review recent progress in our understanding of the nucleon excitation spectrum. Thanks to dedicated efforts at facilities such as ELSA, MAMI and Jefferson Lab, several new nucleon resonances have been discovered, and evidence for previously elusive states has been significantly improved. Numerous decay channels have been observed for the first time, and resonance properties are being extracted from these data by several groups through coupled-channel analyses of varying complexity. Electroproduction experiments have provided further insights into the internal structure of light baryon resonances – for example, the long-debated Roper resonance N (1440) is observed as a three-quark state with a significant meson-cloud component. While the non-relativistic quark model remains a valuable tool for organizing the spectrum of nucleon and Δ resonances, a variety of theoretical frameworks have emerged to offer deeper understanding, including phenomenological quark models, holographic QCD, functional methods, effective field theories, and lattice QCD. We examine the interplay between these approaches, highlight their respective strengths and explore how they complement each other in shaping our knowledge of light baryon resonances. We address several open questions in baryon spectroscopy, including the nature of the enigmatic Λ (1405), ongoing searches for exotic states such as hybrid baryons and pentaquarks, and the dichotomy between microscopic descriptions of baryons in terms of quarks and gluons versus effective hadronic descriptions based on meson-baryon dynamics.

Baryon resonances↗
DOE OSTI2022

QLBT: a linear Boltzmann transport model for heavy quarks in a quark-gluon plasma of quasi-particles

Abstract We develop a new heavy quark transport model, QLBT, to simulate the dynamical propagation of heavy quarks inside the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Our QLBT model is based on the linear Boltzmann transport (LBT) model with the ideal QGP replaced by a collection of quasi-particles to account for the non-perturbative interactions among quarks and gluons of the hot QGP. The thermal masses of quasi-particles are fitted to the equation of state from lattice QCD simulations using the Bayesian statistical analysis method. Combining QLBT with our advanced hybrid fragmentation-coalescence hadronization approach, we calculate the nuclear modification factor $$R_\mathrm {AA}$$ R AA and the elliptic flow $$v_2$$ v 2 of D mesons at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider and the Large Hadron Collider. By comparing our QLBT calculation to the experimental data on the D meson $$R_\mathrm {AA}$$ R AA and $$v_2$$ v 2 , we extract the heavy quark transport parameter $$\hat{q}$$ q ^ and diffusion coefficient $$D_\mathrm {s}$$ D s in the temperature range of $$1-4~T_\mathrm {c}$$ 1 - 4 T c , and compare them with the lattice QCD results and other phenomenological studies.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Simulating Charm Quarks in IP-Glasma Initial Stage and Quark-Gluon Plasma: A Hybrid Approach for charm quark phenomenology

We present phenomenological findings on charm quark transport while including its energy loss in both pre-equilibrium and hydrodynamic stages of the evolution. We employed the MARTINI event generator for the production and evolution of heavy quarks in the relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The sensitivity of the heavy meson nuclear modification factor and flow coeffcient to the early stage of heavy-ion collisions and bulk medium evolution is analyzed for Pb+Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV. Our study provides insights into the interaction strength of charm quarks during the early phase and within the quark-gluon plasma.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗