MRI Consortium: Collaborative Research: Development of the Phase-I DarkLight Experiment at Jefferson Laboratory

MRI 联盟：合作研究：杰斐逊实验室第一阶段暗光实验的开发

• 批准号: 1436680
• 负责人: Michael Kohl
• 金额: $ 32.91万
• 依托单位: Hampton University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-08-15 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1436680&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRI; Consortium; Collaborative; Research; Development

Particle Physics is the science of discovery of the fundamental constituents of matter and energy and is involved in the exploration of the Universe from the smallest to the largest scales. A remarkable achievement of Twentieth Century Particle Physics was the development of the Standard Model that describes impressively well a broad spectrum of fundamental particles such as quarks and leptons and the interactions (the forces) among them. But the Standard Model is incomplete and we know there is important physics that lies beyond it. What is the evidence? As an example, astronomical observations indicate that the known particles of the Standard Model make up only 1/6 of the total matter in the Universe. The remainder is called "Dark Matter" because we don't see it directly. A number of experiments are underway or in the planning stage to look for the Dark Matter, which might be one type of particle or possibly many or perhaps something else entirely. This MRI award will allow the excellent training of young physicists from the institutions in the DarkLight consortium in accelerator science, detector and target development and utilization, measurement and analysis, and search for new evidence of new physics beyond the Standard Model.This Major Research Instrumentation award is made to a consortium of MIT, Hampton University, Arizona State University and Temple University to develop, build and operate a first phase of the DarkLight experiment at Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory. This program addresses two of the science drivers of the recently released Report of the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel (called P5): Dark Matter and the Search for New Particles and Interactions. The DarkLight experiment will utilize the 1 Megawatt electron beam of the existing energy-recovering linac (ERL) at Jefferson Lab, incident at 100 MeV on a windowless hydrogen gas target, to search for evidence of electron and positron pairs which could be decay products of a massive Dark Photon called the A´ in the mass region 10 to 90 MeV. Such an A´ couples leptons (such as electrons and positrons) to dark matter, as suggested by astrophysical observations, and may explain a possible discrepancy with the Standard Model in the observed value of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon (the so called "g-2 anomaly"). DarkLight has the unique feature of searching for the A´ in exclusive reactions. The phase-I realization of the DarkLight instrument will have three scientific goals: to carry out important accelerator science studies involving the interaction of the energy-recovering linac beam with the DarkLight gas target and solenoid; to carefully measure Standard Model background processes; and to carry out a first search for the A´ via detection of e+e- pairs in the mass region 30 to 70 MeV/c2 using this new experimental technique.

粒子物理学是发现物质和能量基本构成的科学，并且参与了从最小到最大尺度的宇宙探索。二十世纪粒子物理学的一个显着成就是标准模型的发展，该模型描述了令人印象深刻的一系列基本颗粒，例如夸克和叶子，以及其中的相互作用（力）。但是标准模型是不完整的，我们知道重要的物理超出了它。有什么证据？例如，天文观测表明，标准模型的已知粒子仅构成宇宙总物质的1/6。其余称为“暗物质”，因为我们不直接看到它。正在进行许多实验或计划阶段，以寻找暗物质，这可能是一种类型的粒子，或者可能完全是其他东西。该MRI奖将允许在速度科学，探测器和目标发展和目标发展和利用，测量和分析中对制度中的年轻物理学家进行出色的培训，并在标准模型之外寻找新物理学的新证据。这是对MIT的一项主要研究，在亚利桑那州立大学，建立了一个阶段，建立了一个阶段，该公司的阶级，该公司的建立，并在台阶上建立了一个阶段，该公司的实验，该公司的实验，该公司的实验，该公司的工作，并于 实验室。该程序介绍了粒子物理项目优先面板最近发布的报告的两个科学驱动因素（称为P5）：暗物质和寻找新粒子和相互作用。 Darklight实验将利用Jefferson实验室现有能量恢复的Linac（ERL）的1兆瓦电子束，在无窗的氢气目标上以100 MEV的形式入射，以搜索电子和正电子对的证据，这可能是衰减的巨大的深色光子的衰减产物。正如天体物理学观察结果所暗示的那样，这种A´夫妇的Lepton（例如电子和阳性）对暗物质，并可能解释了在观察到的Muon异常磁矩值（所谓的“ G-2 Anomaly”）中与标准模型的差异。 Darklight具有在独家反应中搜索A´的独特功能。深色仪器的第一阶段实现将具有三个科学目标：进行重要的加速器科学研究，涉及能量恢复的Linac Beam与Darklight气体目标和螺线管的相互作用；仔细测量标准模型背景过程；并通过使用这种新的实验技术在30至70 meV/c2的质量区域中首次搜索A´通过检测A´。