Speaker
Description
The deuteron electro-disintegration $D(e,e'p)n$ experiment aims to measure $D(e,e'p)n$ cross sections at high $Q^2$, $x_{Bj}>1$, and missing momenta $p_m>600$ MeV/c within a relative statistical error of 15%. To obtain a greater understanding of the strong nuclear force, we must probe deeper in the nucleus within ranges where nucleons overlap (sub-fermi distances). In this region, the nucleon-nucleon (NN) interactions are not well understood. As shown in W. Boeglin and M. Sargsian 1, there is a lack of experimental data for missing momenta beyond $500$ Mev/c. The deuteron is the simplest bound neutron-proton system which makes it the perfect starting place for understanding the strong nuclear force, especially at extremely short distances. This experiment will be conducted in the Experimental Hall C of the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF). CEBAF's electron beam will be incident on a liquid deuterium target and the recoil proton and electron will be detected by Hall C's High Momentum Spectrometer (HMS) and Super High Momentum Spectrometer (SHMS), respectively. The recoiled neutron momentum, i.e., neutron missing momentum, can be reconstructed from the reaction's kinematics. Within the plane wave impulse approximation (PWIA) picture the internal nucleon momenta can be directly correlated to the measured ones providing direct access the nucleon momentum distribution. However, there are other processes that can occur during the $D(e,e'p)n$ reaction, namely, final state interactions (FSI), meson exchange currents (MEC), and isobar configurations (IC) which can be suppressed with carefully selected kinematic settings 1. Results from a previous run were published by C.Yero et. al 2. This spring we will take data at higher missing momenta. We will review the experimental techniques, summarize the previous results, and, time permitting, present preliminary results from the new data.
This work was partially supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics under contracts DE-SC0013620 and DE-AC05-06OR23177. Gema P. Villegas was also supported by a National GEM Consortium Fellowship.
