The Qweak experiment: First determination of the weak charge of the proton

Kargiantoulakis, M. (2014) The Qweak experiment: First determination of the weak charge of the proton. Il nuovo cimento C, 37 (6). pp. 220-228. ISSN 1826-9885

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Abstract

The Qweak Collaboration has completed a challenging measurement of the parity-violating asymmetry in elastic electron-proton (ep) scattering at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab). The initial result reported here is extracted from the commissioning part of the experiment, constituting about 4% of the full data set. The parity-violating asymmetry at a low momentum transfer Q2 = 0.025 GeV2 is Aep = −279 ± 35 (stat) ± 31 (syst) ppb, which is the smallest and most precise asymmetry ever measured in ep scattering. This result allowed the first determination of the weak charge of the proton Qp W from a global fit of parity-violating elastic scattering (PVES) results from nuclear targets, where earlier data at higher Q2 constrain uncertainties of hadronic structure. The value extracted from the global fit is Qp W (PVES) = 0.064 ± 0.012, in agreement with the standard model prediction Qp W (SM) = 0.0710 ± 0.0007. The neutral weak charges of up and down quarks are extracted from a combined fit of the PVES results with a previous atomic parity violation (APV) measurement on 133Cs. The analysis of the full Qweak data is ongoing and expected to yield a value for the weak charge to about 5% precision. Because of the suppression of Qp W , such a high-precision measurement will place significant constraints to models of physics beyond the standard model.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Electroweak interactions ; Protons and neutrons ; Light quarks
Subjects: 500 Scienze naturali e Matematica > 530 Fisica
Depositing User: Marina Spanti
Date Deposited: 20 May 2020 13:05
Last Modified: 20 May 2020 13:05
URI: http://eprints.bice.rm.cnr.it/id/eprint/18819

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