Undergraduate Research at Jefferson Lab

Studies of the Proton Target and Current Fragmentations in the Deep Inelastic Regime

Student: Hannah Valenty

School: Duquesne University

Mentored By: Harut Avagyan and Fatiha Benmokhtar

To analyze the structure of the proton in this study, Semi-Inclusive Deep Inelastic Scattering (SIDIS) was used, where an electron beam is shot at a proton target, creating particle jets of which some are detected. The CLAS12 detector at Jefferson Lab was used for data collection for this analysis, where the collision equation of interest is ep → e'p' + X. This project focused on gaining a better understanding of the different dependencies in the SIDIS production of hadrons (i.e., protons). A multi-dimensional approach was implemented to gain many perspectives on the data. Asymmetry calculations were performed on kinematic variables and trend dependencies were studied. A comparison between particles produced in Target and Current Fragmentation regions and the transition between them was a first of its kind for the proton reaction. There are significant beam Single-Spin Asymmetries for baryons in TFR, with the opposite sign observed in CFR.

[Watch the presentation on YouTube]