Hall D is the newest of Jefferson Lab’s four experimental halls. It is dedicated to the operation of a large-acceptance detector for experiments with a high-energy, polarized photon beam. The experiments are carried out by an international group of scientists called the GlueX collaboration.
New data from CLAS in Hall B probe the magnetic structure of the neutron at large momentum transfers, or small distances, with high precision. The magnetic form factor of the neutron, GMn, has been extracted from measurements of the ratio of quasi-elastic, electron-neutron to electron-proton scattering in deuterium over a Q2 range of 0.5-4.8 (GeV/c)2. The CLAS detector enabled the use of a combination of experimental techniques that allowed unprecedented precision to be achieved at Q2 ≥ 1 (GeV/c)2.
The simplest bound system of neutrons and protons is the deuteron, consisting of one proton and one neutron. In the language of the theory of the strong interaction, quantum chromodynamics (QCD), it is made of six valence quarks (3 up and 3 down), plus the quark-gluon sea. In the standard proton-neutron picture, the deuteron's shape is largely determined by the exchange of a pion, which leads to strong, noncentral "tensor" interactions.
Color polarizabilities: response of the color electric Ec→ and magnetic Bc→ fields in the nucleon when the nucleon is polarized in the direction given by the spin vector S.→
The structure of the deuteron, the nucleus of the deuterium atom, is of prime importance to nuclear physicists. The deuteron is a bound state of one proton and one neutron, and it is the nucleus most often used in measurements of neutron structure. Studies of the deuteron have helped determine the role of non-nucleonic degrees of freedom in nuclei and the corrections from relativity. A recent series of Jefferson Lab measurements have focused on the role of quarks in the structure of the deuteron.
Do new data on the nucleon spin agree with what we expected in the high x_bj region? Left: Neutron spin asymmetry A1n; Right: Spin directions of quarks inside the nucleon.
The Quark-Meson Coupling (QMC) model, a theory which takes the radical step of incorporating self-consistent changes in the quark structure of a nucleon when it is bound in matter, has been transformed into a theory of quasi-nucleons interacting through many-body forces. This adjustment allows the QMC model to be related to the time-honored descriptions of the nucleus where nucleon structure was supposed to play no role. Of course, in experiments conducted at very high energies, it is customary to see the nucleus as a collection of quarks interacting via the exchange of gluons.
