Undergraduate Research at Jefferson Lab

Comparison of Pion and Kaon Distributions in Data and Monte-Carlo for CLAS12

Student: Michael Veltre

School: Duquesne University

Mentored By: Harut Avakian

Through semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS) of electrons off proton and deuteron targets in Hall B at Jefferson Lab, hadrons are emitted at various angles and momenta. After being produced in the hadronization of quarks, these hadrons are detected by the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS12). Through the analysis from the CLAS12 detector, Hall B of Jefferson Lab can distinguish between hadrons, particularly pions and kaons. The goal of this project is to make measurements and comparisons of the momentum and angular distributions of pions and kaons using various data sets. This will be achieved with analysis of pions and kaons resulting from the SIDIS data and comparing the results to two different Monte-Carlo (MC) simulation data sets with different relative contributions from pions and kaons. The data will be analyzed by means of Java as the primary language and utilizing CLAS12 software for more intensive data analysis. The CLAS12 software allows for the use of specific classes and methods that provide a simpler interface to identifying and analyzing particles. The CLAS12 SIDIS MC has been tuned to achieve better agreements with experimental measurements to get the kinematical distributions for pions and kaons. By getting MC as close as possible to the low luminosity data, MC can be used for efficiency studies. Moreover, realistic MC can be used to better understand the response of such a complex detector as CLAS12.

[Watch the presentation on YouTube]