| NSF Org: |
PHY Division Of Physics |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | September 18, 2010 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | September 18, 2010 |
| Award Number: | 1039446 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
kenneth hicks
PHY Division Of Physics MPS Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences |
| Start Date: | October 1, 2010 |
| End Date: | September 30, 2014 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $467,982.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $467,982.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
620 MICHIGAN AVE NE WASHINGTON DC US 20064-0001 (202)635-5000 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
620 MICHIGAN AVE NE WASHINGTON DC US 20064-0001 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| NSF Program(s): | Major Research Instrumentation |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.049 |
ABSTRACT
This award will fund a new detector system for kaon identification which will open up new opportunities for conducting leading-edge research in Hall C at the Jefferson Laboratory after the 12-GeV upgrade. The underlying scientific objective of the kaon program is to study quarks through exclusive and semi-inclusive reactions. From the latter we can, for instance, learn about the transverse momentum of the quarks inside a proton, while the former can tell us about the transverse size of the produced meson (kaon), which is directly linked to factorization and color transparency in Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD). This factorization of short- and long-range interactions is also a prerequisite for the creation of a tomographic image of the proton using the language of Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs), and thus essential for the interpretability of the GPD program at 12 GeV. The proposed instrument will be a standalone device that can be used together with the new Super High Momentum Spectrometer. It will be built by a collaboration of researchers led by the Catholic University of America. It will also include the University of South Carolina, Mississippi State University, Florida International University, and as non-lead partners (not receiving funding) the Jefferson Laboratory and the Yerevan Physics Institute.
The participation of postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students is an integral part of the project, providing young scientists with opportunities to further their training and education. These will include learning nuclear physics concepts and getting hands-on experience in the development of hardware and software. Participating in and contributing to experiments at a major national laboratory also provides exposure to a broad international scientific community. The project leadership by two women physicists could provide a role model for other women and encourage them to pursue advanced studies in physics.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Gaining a quantitative description of the nature of strongly bound systems is of great importance for our understanding of the fundamental structure and origin of the mass of the visible universe, which comes ~98% from the interactions of such systems. The 12 GeV upgrade at Jefferson Lab and this project are an integral part of the efforts by the US nuclear physics community to advance this knowledge. An important aspect in this effort is probing the valence quark structure of strongly interacting systems to determine whether QCD (Quantum Chromo-Dynamics), the theory believed to describe strong interactions, gives a full and complete description of strongly interacting systems. An important goal is thus to map out the transverse spatial structure of the valence quarks and gluons through the Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs). Experimentally, this relies on the asymptotic freedom of QCD, allowing the hard, short-distance interaction of the experimental probe (photon) with one parton (quark) to be unambiguously separated from the residual soft interaction of the struck parton with the rest of the hadron, containing the long distance information about nucleon structure described by the GPDs. In a kinematic regime where hard-soft factorization applies, exclusive measurements of a photon or meson originating from the struck parton can be used to create a tomographic image of the nucleon.
Research carried out under this award produced customized equipment and data analysis results important for probing the transverse spatial structure of hadrons and will be essential for carrying out experiments addressing these scientific goals at the 12 GeV Jefferson Lab. The instrumentation constructed plays a central role in this research allowing one to address the issue where factorization occurs in systems containing strangeness. The new instrument enables studies of the reaction mechanism with exclusive kaon electroproduction in the transition region between hadron and quark-gluon degrees of freedom. Research from this award resulted 46 presentations (5 invited, 28 by students) at conferences and professional meetings, two undergraduate theses, one graduate masters thesis, four papers published or being prepared for submission in peer reviewed journals over the past three years.
The broader impacts of this project are twofold: training the next generation of scientists and raising the profile of minority scientists. For their future careers, students benefit greatly from putting into practice the laboratory procedures and theoretical concepts they encountered in their classes. This project provided students with new opportunities to expand their knowledge in physics and develop important practical skills. It provided training opportunities for 13 undergraduate students, 19 high school students, three graduate students, and two postdoctoral researchers. These opportunities resulted in 28 student presentations at international and domestic research conferences and professional meetings. In physics, where recruitment of talented students is always a priority, women and minorities provide an essential asset for the community. 13 of the 32 students supported by this award are female and 7 are non-caucasian. Six former female high school interns who worked on this project decided to pursue university degrees in physics. Both students and young scientists involved in this project received training and gained experience in both hardware and software, including electronics, detector systems, computer simulations, and data analysis. Doctoral students trained in this manner contribute to the nation’s technical infrastructure. A large fraction of these students may go and work outside of academia, making use of the skills they acquired in solving complex technical problems. The project thus contributes to providing the US with a technically trained workforc...
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