NSF Award
2412373
This award supports three separate experimental programs, each aimed at exploring the structure of our universe at the most fundamental level. The first two programs will investigate how the quarks and gluons that are liberated in high energy proton-proton and electron-proton collisions spawn new quarks and gluons that eventually combine to form the particles that comprise the visible universe. These studies will shed light on the nature of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), a theory that describes the strong force, one of the three fundamental forces that are in the Standard Model of Particle Physics. The third program aims to discover signals of new forces and particles that are not yet included in the Standard Model. The g-2 experiment at Fermi National Laboratory is on track to make the world’s most precise measurement of the anomalous magnetic moment () of the muon, a particle very similar in nature to the electron, but a factor of 200 times heavier. A discrepancy between the measurement and theoretically calculated value of would point to possible contributions to the muon's anomalous magnetic moment from Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) forces and/or particles. The experiments supported by this grant will provide undergraduate and graduate students with the necessary tools and experience to either continue their work in basic research or to enter the technical workforce and lend their problem-solving expertise to a myriad of technical fields, including the areas of finance, big data analysis, patent law, the development and application of machine learning algorithms and medical physics. Undergraduate students funded by this award will continue to have the rare opportunity to experience the scientific culture and basic research performed at U.S. National Laboratories.<br/><br/>The QCD program will use the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider to measure jet fragmentation functions and energy-energy correlators, from distributions of hadrons inside of fully reconstructed jets. Measurements of the differential cross-sections of identified charged hadrons within reconstructed jets in center-of-mass 200 GeV proton-proton and proton-Ion collisions will provide unique constraints on the collinear and transverse momentum dependent quark and gluon fragmentation functions and new insights into hadronization effects in nuclear matter. Measurements of energy-energy correlators in central and forward rapidity jets in proton-proton collisions at 500 GeV will giveinsights into how this hadronization process evolves in time, providing complementary information to similar measurements at the Large Hadron Collider. Finally, measurements of the Collins asymmetry in forward jets, using the newly upgraded STAR detector will provide sensitivities to the transverse spin distributions at high x as well as the Collins fragmentation functions. The BSM component of the program will allow the PI and her group to continue their current efforts in the muon g-2 experiment (E989) at Fermilab and contribute to the analysis of the final datasets (Runs 4-6). Contributions will include the development and support of the g-2 GEANT based simulation software package, simulation production and evaluation of select beam dynamics systematic errors using the simulation<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
