Measurement of two-photon exchange effect with CLAS
The structure of the proton is one the most important and most studied topics in nuclear physics. However, discrepant measurements of the proton's electromagnetic form factor ratio, GE/GM, seriously jeopardize a definitive understanding of the proton's structure. Measurements of GEGM using the Rosenbluth separation technique disagree with those using polarization transfer methods by about a factor of three at Q2~5.6 GeV2. It has been hypothesized that this discrepancy is due to two-photon exchange (TPE) effects that are not part of the usual radiative corrections. Theoretical corrections for the TPE effect are difficult due to the fact that a large number of excited nucleon states can contribute to the process. However, the TPE effect can be directly determined by measuring the ratio of the positron-proton to electron-proton elastic scattering cross sections, R = sigma(e+)/sigma(e-), as the TPE effect changes sign with respect to the charge of the incident particle. A brief test run of a modified beamline and the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab has resulted in the most precise measurements of the R to date. We will present results from the test run covering Q2<0.8 GeV2 and 0.78<=epsilon<=0.97. In addition, the test run demonstrated the feasibility of producing a mixed electron/positron beam of good quality so that the measurements can be extended up to Q2~3.0 GeV2.
- Research Organization:
- Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF), Newport News, VA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-06OR23177
- OSTI ID:
- 990278
- Report Number(s):
- JLAB-PHY-09-1105; DOE/OR/23177-1336; TRN: US1007276
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conf.Proc., Vol. 1257, Issue 1; Conference: Hadron 2009, 29 Nov - 4 Dec 2009, Tallahassee, Florida
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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