A Precision Measurement of Parity Violation in Moller Scattering
This thesis reports on E158, an experiment located in End Station A at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). E158 has made the first observation of the parity violating right-left asymmetry (A{sub PV}) in fixed-target low-Q{sup 2} Moeller scattering. At tree level, A{sub PV} (expected to be around -150 ppb) is directly proportional to 1/4 - sin{sup 2} {theta}{sub W}. A precision measurement of A{sub PV} at low Q{sup 2} allows the running of sin{sup 2} {theta}{sub W} to be compared to the Standard Model prediction. Disagreements between the two might provide evidence for new physics at the TeV scale. This thesis presents the first physics data from E158, taken in the spring of 2002. The data were taken by scattering longitudinally polarized electrons at 45.0 and 48.3 GeV off a liquid hydrogen target at a Q{sup 2} of 0.027 GeV{sup 2}. A 60 meter long spectrometer/collimator system and a cooper-quartz calorimeter were used to detect the Moeller signal electrons. Both devices will be described in detail. The right-left parity violating asymmetry in Moeller scattering has been measured to be -152.3 {+-} 29.0(stat) {+-} 30.9(syst) ppb. The value of sin{sup 2} {theta}{sub W} derived from this measurement is 0.2370 {+-} 0.0025(stat) {+-} 0.0026(syst), in comparison with the Standard Model prediction of 0.2387 {+-} 0.0007.
- Research Organization:
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00515
- OSTI ID:
- 826942
- Report Number(s):
- SLAC-R-717; TRN: US0404707
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 13 May 2004
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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