Undergraduate Research at Jefferson Lab

Visualizing Rosenbluth Separations

Student: Tyler Williams

School: Duquesne University

Mentored By: Douglas Higinbotham

Rosenbluth separations are used to extract the magnetic and electric form factors from elastic electron-proton scattering cross sections. This is done by plotting the reduced cross- section against the values of epsilon for the same Q2 and fitting a line to the data. Hofstadter proposed a method that directly shows the relationship between the form factors. The purpose of the project was to create a more efficient way of displaying the relationship between form factors. By graphing the cross sections for a fixed Q2 as bands on a magnetic form factor vs. electric form factor plot, one can easily see the allowed values. If the band is plotted multiple times for the same Q2 but different beam energies, we can see where the bands overlap and the true values of the form factors. I worked towards displaying previously shown data in a more accessible and easily understood way and was successful.