Experiment Research
E03-101: Hard Photodisintegration of a Proton Pair
E03-101 will measure the high-energy photodisintegration of proton-proton pairs in the helium-3 nucleus. The helium-3 nucleus contains two protons and one neutron. Scientists are looking for instances in which a proton has momentarily paired up with the other proton or the neutron. Calculations predict that, at the energies proposed for this experiment, more pairs of protons will be seen than pairs made up of protons and neutrons. This is in contrast with low-energy observations and would be a clear indication of the interplay of the protons' and neutrons' building blocks: quarks and gluons. The scientists plan to measure the energy dependence at a center of mass angle of 90 degrees, the angular distribution near 90 degrees, and the polarization for the high-energy photodisintegration of proton-proton pairs in helium-3. The experiment is scheduled to run June 8-29.