Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Research from the Qweak experiment provides a precision measurement of the proton’s weak charge. narrows the search for new physics.

OLYMPUS in Nuclear Physics News International

Nuclear Physics News International, Volume 28, Issue 1, January - March, 2018 fea-tured an article on the OLYMPUS Experiment at DESY. This was an experiment lead by researchers from the MIT LNS Hadronic Physics Group to measure the contri-bution from two-photon exchange in lepton-proton scattering. This process is widely believed to be the cause of the striking discrepancy in the proton form factor ratio measured using polarized and unpolarized techniques. The OLYMPUS results, with results from two other experiments, measured only a small, ⟨ 1%, effect. This was less than expected from theoretical calculations but is consistent with the measure-ments in the momentum transfer regime measured. Experiments at higher energies and further theoretical work are still needed to understand the observed discrepancy in the proton form factor ratio.

Or Hen Receives 2018 Guido Altarelli Award

Assistant professor of physics and Laboratory for Nuclear Science researcher recognized for major contributions to high energy and nuclear physics.

Passport Systems, Inc. in February 2018 Edition of National Geographic Magazine

The cover article "The New Big Brother" in the February 2018 edition of National Geographic Magazine features on p. 56-57 the new cargo scanner that has been installed at the Port of Boston by Passport Systems, Inc. Further, the article mentions Bill Bertozzi and Bob Ledoux on p. 47.

LHCb (Mike Williams and collaborators) Searches for Dark Photons: Phys Rev Letters and CERN Courier

Synopsis: LHC Sees No Dark Photons

A search for dark photons at the LHC comes up empty but puts new constraints on the strength of the hypothetical particles’ coupling to electromagnetic fields. Dark matter is aptly named. It emits no light and interacts with visible matter only via gravity. But dark matter might be only the tip of an invisible universe of unknown forces.

CERN Courier - Searches for Dark Photons at LHCb

Nuclear Physics News International

The October-December 2017 quarterly issue of Nuclear Physics News International contains several items directly relevant to the Hadronic Physics Group. The laboratory portrait is of the MIT Bates Laboratory and is written by Bates Director Bob Redwine. The cover photo shows the Qweak toroid, which was designed, constructed and commissioned at Bates. Stanley Kowalski is co-spokesman of the Qweak collaboration. The editorial in this issue was written by Richard Milner. Finally, the issue contains an obituary for our late MIT faculty colleague Arthur Kerman by Ernie Moniz.

Interview With HPG Graduate Student Charles Epstein

Charles Epstein was recently interviewed on his research which is supported by a DOE NNSA Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship.

BLAST Quasielastic (e,e’p) Vector and Tensor Asymmetries Reported in Physical Review Letters

Over twelve years after data taking with the Bates Large Acceptance Spectrometer Toroid (BLAST) was completed, a paper by the BLAST collaboration reporting on vector and tensor asymmetries in quasielastic (e,e’p) scattering from deuterium was published in the November 3, 2017 edition of Physical Review Letters. The results provide new constraints both on the spin structure of the deuteron and the role of the tensor force in the neutron-proton final-state interaction. The work was based on the Ph.D. theses of MIT students Adam DeGrush and Aron Maschinot (supervised by Robert Redwine). The principal authors of the paper were Ricardo Alarcon, Douglas Hasell and Richard Milner.

Dr. Adi Ashkenazy, received the dissertation prize of the Israeli Physical Society

MIT-LNS postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Adi Ashkenazy, received the dissertation prize of the Israeli Physical Society. In her graduate work, Adi searched for new physics with the Atlas detector at the LHC. For her postdoctoral research, she is now working with Prof. Or Hen on the the ‘Electrons 4 Neutrinos’ project, analyzing data from the CLAS spectrometer at Jefferson-Lab and the MicroBooNE detector at Fermilab.

Prof. Robert P. Redwine received a Distinguished Service Award from the Division of Nuclear Physics of the American Physical Society at its recent annual meeting in Pittsburgh, PA. Prof. Redwine was recognized for his generous, dedicated service to the Division of Nuclear Physics in numerous roles spanning more than three decades and, in particular, for his thoughtful leadership of the ad hoc Funding Issues Committee, and the important role that has played in ensuring nuclear science remains a high priority for our nation.