Z. Ahmed

Search for a New Gauge Boson in Electron-Nucleus Fixed-Target Scattering by the APEX Experiment

S. Abrahamyan,1 Z. Ahmed,2 K. Allada,3 D. Anez,4 T. Averett,5 A. Barbieri,6 K. Bartlett,7 J. Beacham,8 J. Bono,9 J.R. Boyce,10 P. Brindza,10 A. Camsonne,10 K. Cranmer,8 M.M. Dalton,6 C.W. de Jager,10, 6 J. Donaghy,7 R. Essig,11, ∗ C. Field,11 E. Folts,10 A. Gasparian,12 N. Goeckner-Wald,13 J. Gomez,10 M. Graham,11 J.-O. Hansen,10 D.W. Higinbotham,10 T. Holmstrom,14 J. Huang,15 S. Iqbal,16 J. Jaros,11 E. Jensen,5 A. Kelleher,15 M. Khandaker,17, 10 J.J. LeRose,10 R. Lindgren,6 N. Liyanage,6 E. Long,18 J. Mammei,19 P. Markowitz,9 T. Maruyama,11 V. Maxwell,9 S. Mayilyan,1 J. McDonald,11 R. Michaels,10 K. Moffeit,11 V. Nelyubin,6 A. Odian,11 M. Oriunno,11 R. Partridge,11 M. Paolone,20 E. Piasetzky,21 I. Pomerantz,21 Y. Qiang,10 S. Riordan,19 Y. Roblin,10 B. Sawatzky,10 P. Schuster,11, 22, † J. Segal,10 L. Selvy,18 A. Shahinyan,1 R. Subedi,23 V. Sulkosky,15 S. Stepanyan,10 N. Toro,24, 22, ‡ D. Walz,11 B. Wojtsekhowski,10, § and J. Zhang10 Yerevan Physics Institute, Yerevan 375036, Armenia Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244 University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506 Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, NS B3H 3C3, Canada College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia 23187 University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903 University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire 03824 New York University, New York, New York 10012 Florida International University, Miami, Florida 33199 Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, Virginia 23606 SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025 North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro, North Carolina 27411 Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213 Longwood University, Farmville, Virginia 23909 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 California State University at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90032 Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia 23504 Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242 University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003 University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29225 Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978 Israel Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, ON N2L 2Y5, Canada George Washington University, Washington DC 20052 Stanford University, Menlo Park, California 94025 (Dated: February 1, 2013)

New Precision Limit on the Strange Vector Form Factors of the Proton

The parity-violating cross-section asymmetry in the elastic scattering of polarized electrons from unpolarized protons has been measured at a four-momentum transfer squared Q2 = 0.624  GeV2 and beam energy E(b) = 3.48  GeV to be A(PV) = -23.80 ± 0.78(stat) ± 0.36(syst) parts per million. This result is consistent with zero contribution of strange quarks to the combination of electric and magnetic form factors G(E)(s) + 0.517G(M)(s) = 0.003 ± 0.010(stat) ± 0.004(syst) ± 0.009(ff), where the third error is due to the limits of precision on the electromagnetic form factors and radiative corrections. With this measurement, the world data on strange contributions to nucleon form factors are seen to be consistent with zero and not more than a few percent of the proton form factors.

Measurements of parity-violating asymmetries in electron-deuteron scattering in the nucleon resonance region.

We report on parity-violating asymmetries in the nucleon resonance region measured using inclusive inelastic scattering of 5-6 GeV longitudinally polarized electrons off an unpolarized deuterium target. These results are the first parity-violating asymmetry data in the resonance region beyond the Δ(1232). They provide a verification of quark-hadron duality-the equivalence of the quark- and hadron-based pictures of the nucleon-at the (10-15)% level in this electroweak observable, which is dominated by contributions from the nucleon electroweak γZ interference structure functions. In addition, the results provide constraints on nucleon resonance models relevant for calculating background corrections to elastic parity-violating electron scattering measurements.

Helicity-dependent cross sections and double-polarization observable E in η photoproduction from quasifree protons and neutrons

Precise helicity-dependent cross sections and the double-polarization observable E were measured for η photoproduction from quasifree protons and neutrons bound in the deuteron. The η → 2γ and η → 3π0 → 6γ decay modes were used to optimize the statistical quality of the data and to estimate systematic uncertainties. The measurement used the A2 detector setup at the tagged photon beam of the electron accelerator MAMI in Mainz. A longitudinally polarized deuterated butanol target was used in combination with a circularly polarized photon beam from bremsstrahlung of a longitudinally polarized electron beam. The reaction products were detected with the electromagnetic calorimeters Crystal Ball and TAPS, which covered 98% of the full solid angle. The results show that the narrow structure observed earlier in the unpolarized excitation function of η photoproduction off the neutron appears only in reactions with antiparallel photon and nucleon spin (σ1/2). It is absent for reactions with parallel spin orientation (σ3/2) and thus very probably related to partial waves with total spin 1/2. The behavior of the angular distributions of the helicity-dependent cross sections was analyzed by fitting them with Legendre polynomials. The results are in good agreement with a model from the Bonn-Gatchina group, which uses an interference of P11 and S11 partial waves to explain the narrow structure.

Rosenbluth Separation of the π0 Electroproduction Cross Section

We present deeply virtual π^{0} electroproduction cross-section measurements at x_{B}=0.36 and three different Q^{2} values ranging from 1.5 to 2  GeV^{2}, obtained from Jefferson Lab Hall A experiment E07-007. The Rosenbluth technique is used to separate the longitudinal and transverse responses. Results demonstrate that the cross section is dominated by its transverse component and, thus, is far from the asymptotic limit predicted by perturbative quantum chromodynamics. Nonetheless, an indication of a nonzero longitudinal contribution is provided by the measured interference term σ_{LT}. Results are compared with several models based on the leading-twist approach of generalized parton distributions (GPDs). In particular, a fair agreement is obtained with models in which the scattering amplitude includes convolution terms of chiral-odd (transversity) GPDs of the nucleon with the twist-3 pion distribution amplitude. This experiment, together with previous extensive unseparated measurements, provides strong support to the exciting idea that transversity GPDs can be accessed via neutral pion electroproduction in the high-Q^{2} regime.

Electroexcitation of the Δ+(1232) at low momentum transfer

We report on new p(e,e′p)π∘p(e,e′p)π∘ measurements at the Δ+(1232)Δ+(1232) resonance at the low momentum transfer region, where the mesonic cloud dynamics is predicted to be dominant and rapidly changing, offering a test bed for chiral effective field theory calculations. The new data explore the Q2Q2 dependence of the resonant quadrupole amplitudes and for the first time indicate that the Electric and the Coulomb quadrupole amplitudes converge as Q2→0Q2→0. The measurements of the Coulomb quadrupole amplitude have been extended to the lowest momentum transfer ever reached, and suggest that more than half of its magnitude is attributed to the mesonic cloud in this region. The new data disagree with predictions of constituent quark models and are in reasonable agreement with dynamical calculations that include pion cloud effects, chiral effective field theory and lattice calculations. The measurements indicate that improvement is required to the theoretical calculations and provide valuable input that will allow their refinements.

Rosenbluth Separation of the π0 Electroproduction Cross Section Off the Neutron

We report the first longitudinal-transverse separation of the deeply virtual exclusive π^{0} electroproduction cross section off the neutron and coherent deuteron. The corresponding four structure functions dσ_{L}/dt, dσ_{T}/dt, dσ_{LT}/dt, and dσ_{TT}/dt are extracted as a function of the momentum transfer to the recoil system at Q^{2}=1.75  GeV^{2} and x_{B}=0.36. The ed→edπ^{0} cross sections are found compatible with the small values expected from theoretical models. The en→enπ^{0} cross sections show a dominance from the response to transversely polarized photons, and are in good agreement with calculations based on the transversity generalized parton distributions of the nucleon. By combining these results with previous measurements of π^{0} electroproduction off the proton, we present a flavor decomposition of the u and d quark contributions to the cross section.

A glimpse of gluons through deeply virtual compton scattering on the proton

The internal structure of nucleons (protons and neutrons) remains one of the greatest outstanding problems in modern nuclear physics. By scattering high-energy electrons off a proton we are able to resolve its fundamental constituents and probe their momenta and positions. Here we investigate the dynamics of quarks and gluons inside nucleons using deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS)—a highly virtual photon scatters off the proton, which subsequently radiates a photon. DVCS interferes with the Bethe-Heitler (BH) process, where the photon is emitted by the electron rather than the proton. We report herein the full determination of the BH-DVCS interference by exploiting the distinct energy dependences of the DVCS and BH amplitudes. In the regime where the scattering is expected to occur off a single quark, measurements show an intriguing sensitivity to gluons, the carriers of the strong interaction.It remains a challenge to find the structure and the distribution of the constituents of nucleons. Here the authors use a scattering method to get information about the gluons and quarks inside a proton and separate the contribution of Bethe-Heitler from the deeply virtual Compton scattering process.

First measurement of helicity-dependent cross sections in pi0-eta photoproduction from quasi-free nucleons

Abstract The helicity-dependent cross sections for the photoproduction of π 0 η pairs have been measured for the first time. The experiment was performed at the tagged photon facility of the Mainz MAMI accelerator with the combined Crystal Ball – TAPS calorimeter. The experiment used a polarized deuterated butanol target and a circularly polarized photon beam. This arrangement allowed the σ 1 / 2 (photon and target spin antiparallel) and σ 3 / 2 (parallel spins) components to be measured for quasi-free production of π 0 η pairs off protons and neutrons. The main finding is that the two helicity components contribute identically, within uncertainties, for both participant protons and neutrons. The absolute couplings for protons and neutrons are also identical. This means that nucleon resonances contributing to this reaction in the investigated energy range have almost equal electromagnetic helicity couplings, A 1 / 2 n , p and A 3 / 2 n , p . Identical couplings for protons and neutrons are typical for Δ resonances and identical A 1 / 2 and A 3 / 2 components are only possible for J ≥ 3 / 2 states, which constrains possible contributions of nucleon resonances.

Photon asymmetry measurements of

Abstract.High-statistics measurements of the photon asymmetry