NSF Award
1068032
This grant will support the participation of the principal investigator (PI) and Hendrix College undergraduates in the Qweak experiment at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) in Newport News, VA. The goal of this experiment is to perform a high-precision measurement of the proton's weak charge using parity-violating electron scattering. The role of the weak charge is analogous to that of the electric charge: it determines the coupling between the bosonic force carrier and the hadron. The weak charge can be simply expressed in terms of the electroweak mixing angle, which is a fundamental parameters of the Standard Model. The mixing angle has been precisely determined at the Z-pole; however its value varies as a function of the momentum transferred by the exchanged boson. Other experiments have measured the mixing angle at momentum transfer values below the Z-pole but none with the precision that will be achieved by Qweak. The Qweak experiment has notable discovery potential due to its sensitivity to such a well-determined, fundamental Standard Model parameter; a significant deviation from the predicted value would be an indication of new physics beyond the Standard Model. The PI and undergraduate researchers will continue development and maintenance of a software database and other analysis tools for the experiment, participate in the collection of data, and contribute to the analysis of results. The database will store information about experimental conditions and physics results obtained throughout the course of Qweak running. It will be the primary storehouse used during data analysis and instrumental in extracting the electroweak mixing angle at this momentum transfer.<br/><br/>The broader impacts of this work stem primarily from the opportunities it provides to Hendrix students, many of who come from EPSCoR states such as Arkansas, to participate in cutting-edge research. These opportunities will help the students develop crucial analytical and problem-solving skills and prepare them for further work and education in STEM-related fields. Additionally, researchers funded by this proposal will perform K-12 outreach at their alma maters or in the local school district. The PI has extensive experience in mentoring undergraduate students in research projects of this type having supervised eight such projects over the last seven years (six in the last three). As a faculty member at a small liberal arts college he is well positioned to recruit strong students of all backgrounds into the sciences through their participation in this research program.
