Speaker
Description
The MOLLER (Measurement Of a Lepton Lepton Electroweak Reaction) experiment aims to measure the parity-violating asymmetry $A_{PV}$ in the scattering of longitudinally polarized electrons off unpolarized electrons with an uncertainty of 0.8 ppb. This measurement can be used to directly determine the weak mixing angle at low $Q^{2}$ with the best precision ($\delta(\sin^2\theta_W) = \pm 0.00028$) that matches $Z$-pole measurements. This precise $A_{PV}$ measurement will be sensitive to the interference of the electromagnetic amplitude with new neutral current amplitudes as weak as $10^{-3}$$\cdot$$G_{F}$ from as yet undiscovered dynamics beyond the Standard Model. The resulting discovery reach is unmatched by any proposed experiment measuring a flavor- and CP-conserving process at low energy over the next decade, and yields a unique window to new physics at MeV and multi-TeV scales, complementary to direct searches at high energy colliders such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The experiment takes advantage of the unique opportunity provided by the upgraded electron beam energy, luminosity, and stability at Jefferson Laboratory and the extensive experience accumulated in the community after a round of recent successfully completed parity-violating electron scattering experiments. This talk will overview the physics motivation and the apparatus and report on the status and immediate plans of the MOLLER construction project.
