High School Research at Jefferson Lab

Using an Electron Ion Collider to Study the Properties of the Neutron

The project is about the electron-deuteron scattering that can occur when the Medium-energy Electron Ion Collider is built. This can be done with the current electron collider, but with major difficulties. When the experiment occurs the electron will hit the deuteron, or 2H. The deuteron is the hydrogen-2 isotope where there is 1 proton and one neutron. The proton will remain unscathed and move off as a spectator and the neutron will explode into deep inelastic scattering, where there are many parts of the neutron that can now be analyzed to get a deeper understanding of the neutron. Currently, since the project can't be physically done right now, the scattering is being modeled in a diagram. There are also codes that are being used that can simulate the scattering. The first code looks at the cross-section, or probability, that the desired scattering will occur. The second code goes more in-depth into analyzing the possibilities of the scattering and incorporates the first code.