Compton Polarimetry for Neutral Weak Form Factor Measurements in 208Pb and 48Ca

Thesis/Dissertation · Mon Jan 03 04:00:00 EST 2022

OSTI ID:1844333

Zec, Allison ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States)

Atomic nuclei contain a number of protons and neutrons. Most heavy nuclei contain more neutrons than protons in order to remain stable. The nuclear proton distribution can be measured via elastic scattering of charged particles, but the neutron distribution remains poorly constrained. Nuclear structure theory also predicts a "neutron skin" ?Rnp where the mean radii of neutrons in the nucleus exceeds that of protons. Two experiments were run in 2019 and 2020 to measure the neutron skin in two different nuclei. The first experiment, PREX-II, was designed to measure the neutron skin in 208Pb, while the second experiment, CREX, was designed to measure the neutron skin in 48Ca. Both experiments employed the parity-violating electron scattering (PVES) technique in which longitudinally spin-polarized electrons are scattered off an unpolarized target.

• Research Organization: Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, VA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-06OR23177
• OSTI ID: 1844333
• Report Number(s): JLAB-PHY-22-3563; DOE/OR/23177-5426
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English