arXiv subjects

G. Niculescu

Publications and source records attributed to G. Niculescu.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Physics with Positron Beams at Jefferson Lab 12 GeV

Positron beams, both polarized and unpolarized, are identified as essential ingredients for the experimental program at the next generation of lepton accelerators. In the context of the Hadronic Physics program at the Jefferson Laboratory (JLab), positron beams are complementary, even essential, tools for a precise understanding of the electromagnetic structure of the nucleon, in both the elastic and the deep-inelastic regimes. For instance, elastic scattering of (un)polarized electrons and positrons off the nucleon allows for a model independent determination of the electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon. Also, the deeply virtual Compton scattering of (un)polarized electrons and positrons allows us to separate unambiguously the different contributions to the cross section of the lepto-production of photons, enabling an accurate determination of the nucleon Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs), and providing an access to its Gravitational Form Factors. Furthermore, positron beams offer the possibility of alternative tests of the Standard Model through the search of a dark photon or the precise measurement of electroweak couplings. This letter proposes to develop an experimental positron program at JLab to perform unique high impact measurements with respect to the two-photon exchange problem, the determination of the proton and the neutron GPDs, and the search for the $A^{\prime}$ dark photon.

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arXiv2019

Measurements of Non-Singlet Moments of the Nucleon Structure Functions and Comparison to Predictions from Lattice QCD for $Q^2 = 4$ $\rm GeV^2$

We present extractions of the nucleon non-singlet moments utilizing new precision data on the deuteron $F_2$ structure function at large Bjorken-$x$ determined via the Rosenbluth separation technique at Jefferson Lab Experimental Hall C. These new data are combined with a complementary set of data on the proton previously measured in Hall C at similar kinematics and world data sets on the proton and deuteron at lower $x$ measured at SLAC and CERN. The new Jefferson Lab data provide coverage of the upper third of the $x$ range, crucial for precision determination of the higher moments. In contrast to previous extractions, these moments have been corrected for nuclear effects in the deuteron using a new global fit to the deuteron and proton data. The obtained experimental moments represent an order of magnitude improvement in precision over previous extractions using high $x$ data. Moreover, recent exciting developments in Lattice QCD calculations provide a first ever comparison of these new experimental results with calculations of moments carried out at the physical pion mass, as well as a new approach which first calculates the quark distributions directly before determining moments.

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arXiv2018

First results on nucleon resonance photocouplings from the $γp \to π^+π^-p$ reaction

We report the first experimental measurements of the nine 1-fold differential cross sections for the $γp \to π^+π^-p$ reaction, obtained with the CLAS detector at Jefferson Laboratory. The measurements cover the invariant mass range of the final state hadrons from 1.6~GeV~$<W<$~2.0~GeV. For the first time the photocouplings of all prominent nucleon resonances in this mass range have been extracted from this exclusive channel. Photoproduction of two charged pions is of particular importance for the evaluation of the photocouplings for the $Δ(1620)1/2^-$, $Δ(1700)3/2^-$, $N(1720)3/2^+$, and $Δ(1905)5/2^+$ resonances, which have dominant decays into the $ππN$ final states rather than the more extensively studied single meson decay channels.

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arXiv2018

Separated Kaon Electroproduction Cross Section and the Kaon Form Factor from 6 GeV JLab Data

The $^{1}H$($e,e^\prime K^+$)$Λ$ reaction was studied as a function of the Mandelstam variable $-t$ using data from the E01-004 (FPI-2) and E93-018 experiments that were carried out in Hall C at the 6 GeV Jefferson Lab. The cross section was fully separated into longitudinal and transverse components, and two interference terms at four-momentum transfers $Q^2$ of 1.00, 1.36 and 2.07 GeV$^2$. The kaon form factor was extracted from the longitudinal cross section using the Regge model by Vanderhaeghen, Guidal, and Laget. The results establish the method, previously used successfully for pion analyses, for extracting the kaon form factor. Data from 12 GeV Jefferson Lab experiments are expected to have sufficient precision to distinguish between theoretical predictions, for example recent perturbative QCD calculations with modern parton distribution amplitudes. The leading-twist behavior for light mesons is predicted to set in for values of $Q^2$ between 5-10 GeV$^2$, which makes data in the few GeV regime particularly interesting. The $Q^2$ dependence at fixed $x$ and $-t$ of the longitudinal cross section we extracted seems consistent with the QCD factorization prediction within the experimental uncertainty.

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arXiv2017

Conceptual Design Report A Compact Photon Source

We propose to build a shielded magnet that will act as an untagged bremsstrahlung photon source suitable for deployment in Hall A/C at Jefferson Lab. The goal of the project is a compact source which provides a narrow 1-mm diameter photon beam at the target with the intensity adequate to the polarized target operation. The proposed solution is based on the absorption of the electron beam in the magnet. The compactness is achieved by means of a shallow channel which leads to an electromagnetic shower in the Cu-W body of the channel and surrounding material after a 1-2~mm deflection of the beam electrons by a horizontal magnetic field. This source will allow us to achieve ten times the luminosity of the mixed electron--photon beam configuration while keeping the heat load on the (polarized) target as well as the radiation level in the experimental hall at acceptable levels. The concept for this device was developed for the experimental proposal PR12-15-003 but, if built, it would become a general--purpose source that would be usable for a variety of photon--induced reactions of interest in the 12-GeV era.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2017

Double $K_S^0$ Photoproduction off the Proton at CLAS

The $f_0$(1500) meson resonance is one of several contenders to have significant mixing with the lightest glueball. This resonance is well established from several previous experiments. Here we present the first photoproduction data for the $f_0$(1500) via decay into the $K_S^0 K_S^0$ channel using the CLAS detector. The reaction $γp$ -> $f_0 p$ -> $K_S^0 K_S^0 p$, where J = 0, 2, was measured with photon energies from 2.7 to 5.1 GeV. A clear peak is seen at 1500 MeV in the background subtracted invariant mass spectra of the two kaons. This is enhanced if the measured 4-momentum transfer to the proton target is restricted to be less than 1.0 GeV2. By comparing data with simulations, it can be concluded that the peak at 1500 MeV is produced primarily at low t, which is consistent with a t-channel production mechanism.

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arXiv2017

Workshop on High-Intensity Photon Sources (HIPS2017) Mini-Proceedings

This workshop aimed at producing an optimized photon source concept with potential increase of scientific output at Jefferson Lab, and at refining the science for hadron physics experiments benefitting from such a high-intensity photon source. The workshop brought together the communities directly using such sources for photo-production experiments, or for conversion into $K_L$ beams. The combination of high precision calorimetry and high intensity photon sources greatly enhances scientific benefit to (deep) exclusive processes like wide-angle and time-like Compton scattering. Potential prospects of such a high-intensity source with modern polarized targets were also discussed. The availability of $K_L$ beams would open new avenues for hadron spectroscopy, for example for the investigation of "missing" hyperon resonances, with potential impact on QCD thermodynamics and on freeze-out both in heavy ion collisions and in the early universe.

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arXiv2017

Exclusive $η$ electroproduction at $W>2$ GeV with CLAS and transversity generalized parton distributions

The cross section of the exclusive $η$ electroproduction reaction $ep\to e^\prime p^\prime η$ was measured at Jefferson Lab with a 5.75-GeV electron beam and the CLAS detector. Differential cross sections $d^4σ/dtdQ^2dx_Bdϕ_η$ and structure functions $σ_U = σ_T+εσ_L, σ_{TT}$ and $σ_{LT}$, as functions of $t$ were obtained over a wide range of $Q^2$ and $x_B$. The $η$ structure functions are compared with those previously measured for $π^0$ at the same kinematics. At low $t$, both $π^0$ and $η$ are described reasonably well by generalized parton distributions (GPDs) in which chiral-odd transversity GPDs are dominant. The $π^0$ and $η$ data, when taken together, can facilitate the flavor decomposition of the transversity GPDs.

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arXiv2016

Spectroscopy of the neutron-rich hypernucleus $^{7}_Λ$He from electron scattering

The missing mass spectroscopy of the $^{7}_Λ$He hypernucleus was performed, using the $^{7}$Li$(e,e^{\prime}K^{+})^{7}_Λ$He reaction at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Hall C. The $Λ$ binding energy of the ground state (1/2$^{+}$) was determined with a smaller error than that of the previous measurement, being $B_Λ$ = 5.55 $\pm$ 0.10(stat.) $\pm$ 0.11(sys.) MeV. The experiment also provided new insight into charge symmetry breaking in p-shell hypernuclear systems. Finally, a peak at $B_Λ$ = 3.65 $\pm$ 0.20(stat.) $\pm$ 0.11(sys.) MeV was observed and assigned as a mixture of 3/2$^{+}$ and 5/2$^{+}$ states, confirming the "gluelike" behavior of $Λ$, which makes an unstable state in $^{6}$He stable against neutron emission.

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arXiv2016

Measurements of the Separated Longitudinal Structure Function F_L from Hydrogen and Deuterium Targets at Low Q^2

Structure functions, as measured in lepton-nucleon scattering, have proven to be very useful in studying the quark dynamics within the nucleon. However, it is experimentally difficult to separately determine the longitudinal and transverse structure functions, and consequently there are substantially less data available for the longitudinal structure function in particular. Here we present separated structure functions for hydrogen and deuterium at low four--momentum transfer squared, Q^2< 1 GeV^2, and compare these with parton distribution parameterizations and a k_T factorization approach. While differences are found, the parameterizations generally agree with the data even at the very low Q^2 scale of the data. The deuterium data show a smaller longitudinal structure function, and smaller ratio of longitudinal to transverse cross section R, than the proton. This suggests either an unexpected difference in R for the proton and neutron or a suppression of the gluonic distribution in nuclei.

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arXiv2016

High Resolution Spectroscopic Study of $^{10}_Λ$Be

Spectroscopy of a $^{10}_Λ$Be hypernucleus was carried out at JLab Hall C using the $(e,e^{\prime}K^{+})$ reaction. A new magnetic spectrometer system (SPL+HES+HKS), specifically designed for high resolution hypernuclear spectroscopy, was used to obtain an energy spectrum with a resolution of 0.78 MeV (FWHM). The well-calibrated spectrometer system of the present experiment using the $p(e,e^{\prime}K^{+})Λ,Σ^{0}$ reactions allowed us to determine the energy levels, and the binding energy of the ground state peak (mixture of 1$^{-}$ and 2$^{-}$ states) was obtained to be B$_Λ$=8.55$\pm$0.07(stat.)$\pm$0.11(sys.) MeV. The result indicates that the ground state energy is shallower than that of an emulsion study by about 0.5 MeV which provides valuable experimental information on charge symmetry breaking effect in the $ΛN$ interaction.

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arXiv2015

Measurement of the EMC Effect in the Deuteron

We have determined the structure function ratio $R^d_{\rm EMC}=F_2^d/(F_2^n+F_2^p)$ from recently published $F_2^n/F_2^d$ data taken by the BONuS experiment using CLAS at Jefferson Lab. This ratio deviates from unity, with a slope $dR_{\rm EMC}^{d}/dx= -0.10\pm 0.05$ in the range of Bjorken $x$ from 0.35 to 0.7, for invariant mass $W>1.4$ GeV and $Q^2>1$ GeV$^2$. The observed EMC effect for these kinematics is consistent with conventional nuclear physics models that include off-shell corrections, as well as with empirical analyses that find the EMC effect proportional to the probability of short-range nucleon-nucleon correlations.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Determination of the Beam-Spin Asymmetry of Deuteron Photodisintegration in the Energy Region $E_γ=1.1-2.3$ GeV

The beam-spin asymmetry, $Σ$, for the reaction $γd\rightarrow pn$ has been measured using the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) for six photon-energy bins between 1.1 and 2.3 GeV, and proton angles in the center-of-mass frame, $θ_{c.m.}$, between $25^\circ$ and $160^\circ$. These are the first measurements of beam-spin asymmetries at $θ_{c.m.}=90^\circ$ for photon-beam energies above 1.6 GeV, and the first measurements for angles other than $θ_{c.m.}=90^\circ$. The angular and energy dependence of $Σ$ is expected to aid in the development of QCD-based models to understand the mechanisms of deuteron photodisintegration in the transition region between hadronic and partonic degrees of freedom, where both effective field theories and perturbative QCD cannot make reliable predictions.

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arXiv2015

Direct observation of quark-hadron duality in the free neutron F_2 structure function

Using data from the recent BONuS experiment at Jefferson Lab, which utilized a novel spectator tagging technique to extract the inclusive electron-free neutron scattering cross section, we obtain the first direct observation of quark-hadron duality in the neutron F_2 structure function. The data are used to reconstruct the lowest few (N=2, 4 and 6) moments of F_2 in the three prominent nucleon resonance regions, as well as the moments integrated over the entire resonance region. Comparison with moments computed from global parametrizations of parton distribution functions suggest that quark--hadron duality holds locally for the neutron in the second and third resonance regions down to Q^2 ~ 1 GeV^2, with violations possibly up to 20% observed in the first resonance region.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2014

Separated Response Functions in Exclusive, Forward $π^{\pm}$ Electroproduction on Deuterium

Background: Measurements of forward exclusive meson production at different squared four-momenta of the exchanged virtual photon, $Q^2$, and at different four-momentum transfer, t, can be used to probe QCD's transition from meson-nucleon degrees of freedom at long distances to quark-gluon degrees of freedom at short scales. Ratios of separated response functions in $π^-$ and $π^+$ electroproduction are particularly informative. The ratio for transverse photons may allow this transition to be more easily observed, while the ratio for longitudinal photons provides a crucial verification of the assumed pole dominance, needed for reliable extraction of the pion form factor from electroproduction data. Method: Data were acquired with 2.6-5.2 GeV electron beams and the HMS+SOS spectrometers in Jefferson Lab Hall C, at central $Q^2$ values of 0.6, 1.0, 1.6 GeV$^2$ at W=1.95 GeV, and $Q^2$=2.45 GeV$^2$ at W=2.22 GeV. There was significant coverage in $ϕ$ and $ε$, which allowed separation of $σ_{L,T,LT,TT}$. Results: $σ_L$ shows a clear signature of the pion pole, with a sharp rise at small -t. In contrast, $σ_T$ is much flatter versus t. The longitudinal/transverse ratios evolve with $Q^2$ and t, and at the highest $Q^2$=2.45 GeV$^2$ show a slight enhancement for $π^-$ production compared to $π^+$. The $π^-/π^+$ ratio for transverse photons exhibits only a small $Q^2$-dependence, following a nearly universal curve with t, with a steep transition to a value of about 0.25, consistent with s-channel quark knockout. The $σ_{TT}/σ_T$ ratio also drops rapidly with $Q^2$, qualitatively consistent with s-channel helicity conservation. The $π^-/π^+$ ratio for longitudinal photons indicates a small isoscalar contamination at W=1.95 GeV, consistent with what was observed in our earlier determination of the pion form factor at these kinematics.

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arXiv2014

Momentum sharing in imbalanced Fermi systems

The atomic nucleus is composed of two different kinds of fermions, protons and neutrons. If the protons and neutrons did not interact, the Pauli exclusion principle would force the majority fermions (usually neutrons) to have a higher average momentum. Our high-energy electron scattering measurements using 12C, 27Al, 56Fe and 208Pb targets show that, even in heavy neutron-rich nuclei, short-range interactions between the fermions form correlated high-momentum neutron-proton pairs. Thus, in neutron-rich nuclei, protons have a greater probability than neutrons to have momentum greater than the Fermi momentum. This finding has implications ranging from nuclear few body systems to neutron stars and may also be observable experimentally in two-spin state, ultra-cold atomic gas systems.

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arXiv2014

Towards a resolution of the proton form factor problem: new electron and positron scattering data

There is a significant discrepancy between the values of the proton electric form factor, $G_E^p$, extracted using unpolarized and polarized electron scattering. Calculations predict that small two-photon exchange (TPE) contributions can significantly affect the extraction of $G_E^p$ from the unpolarized electron-proton cross sections. We determined the TPE contribution by measuring the ratio of positron-proton to electron-proton elastic scattering cross sections using a simultaneous, tertiary electron-positron beam incident on a liquid hydrogen target and detecting the scattered particles in the Jefferson Lab CLAS detector. This novel technique allowed us to cover a wide range in virtual photon polarization ($\varepsilon$) and momentum transfer ($Q^2$) simultaneously, as well as to cancel luminosity-related systematic errors. The cross section ratio increases with decreasing $\varepsilon$ at $Q^2 = 1.45 \text{ GeV}^2$. This measurement is consistent with the size of the form factor discrepancy at $Q^2\approx 1.75$ GeV$^2$ and with hadronic calculations including nucleon and $Δ$ intermediate states, which have been shown to resolve the discrepancy up to $2-3$ GeV$^2$.

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arXiv2014

The experiments with the High Resolution Kaon Spectrometer at JLab Hall C and the new spectroscopy of ${}^{12}_Λ\text{B}$ hypernuclei

Since the pioneering experiment, E89-009 studying hypernuclear spectroscopy using the $(e,e^{\prime}K^+)$ reaction was completed, two additional experiments, E01-011 and E05-115, were performed at Jefferson Lab. These later experiments used a modified experimental design, the "tilt method", to dramatically suppress the large electromagnetic background, and allowed for a substantial increase in luminosity. Additionally, a new kaon spectrometer, HKS (E01-011), a new electron spectrometer, HES, and a new splitting magnet were added to produce precision, high-resolution hypernuclear spectroscopy. These two experiments, E01-011 and E05-115, resulted in two new data sets, producing sub-MeV energy resolution in the spectra of ${}^{7}_Λ\text{He}$, ${}^{12}_Λ\text{B}$ and ${}^{28}_Λ\text{Al}$ and ${}^{7}_Λ\text{He}$, ${}^{10}_Λ\text{Be}$, ${}^{12}_Λ\text{B}$ and ${}^{52}_Λ\text{V}$. All three experiments obtained a ${}^{12}_Λ\text{B}$, spectrum, which is the most characteristic $p$-shell hypernucleus and is commonly used for calibration. Independent analyses of these different experiments demonstrate excellent consistency and provide the clearest level structure to date of this hypernucleus as produced by the $(e,e^{\prime}K^+)$ reaction. This paper presents details of these experiments, and the extraction and analysis of the observed ${}^{12}_Λ\text{B}$ spectrum.

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