Extraction of the Strong Coupling from the Electron-Ion Collider
College
College of Sciences
Department
Physics
Graduate Level
Doctoral
Graduate Program/Concentration
Experimental Nuclear Physics
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Abstract
The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), which is being constructed at Brookhaven National Lab in New York, is the next major facility to study the smallest building blocks of matter and their interactions. This facility will collide spin-polarized electrons and nuclei, thus providing new opportunities to study the spin structure of nucleons. Given the expected performance of the facility, we simulated polarized electron-proton and electron-Helium 3 collisions using double-tagging, an innovative approach resulting in improved precision for neutron data. These projections provide the expected precision for measurements of the inclusive spin-structure functions of the proton and neutron. To increase the kinematic coverage and improve the accuracy of this study, we use a parameterization from existing experimental data. We integrate over quark momentum to obtain the proton and neutron spin structure function moments with their respective experimental uncertainties. Then employ a Monte-Carlo approach to determine the systematic uncertainty. Forming Bjorken sums from the moments, we fit the sums using a series representation of the Bjorken Sum Rule to obtain the value and uncertainty for the coupling of the strong nuclear force, αs. Improved experimental methodologies paired with improved theoretical calculations permit the extraction of αs with a relative precision of 1.3 percent, competitive with the most accurate global analyses on world data of Deep-Inelastic Scattering.
Keywords
nuclear physics
Extraction of the Strong Coupling from the Electron-Ion Collider
The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), which is being constructed at Brookhaven National Lab in New York, is the next major facility to study the smallest building blocks of matter and their interactions. This facility will collide spin-polarized electrons and nuclei, thus providing new opportunities to study the spin structure of nucleons. Given the expected performance of the facility, we simulated polarized electron-proton and electron-Helium 3 collisions using double-tagging, an innovative approach resulting in improved precision for neutron data. These projections provide the expected precision for measurements of the inclusive spin-structure functions of the proton and neutron. To increase the kinematic coverage and improve the accuracy of this study, we use a parameterization from existing experimental data. We integrate over quark momentum to obtain the proton and neutron spin structure function moments with their respective experimental uncertainties. Then employ a Monte-Carlo approach to determine the systematic uncertainty. Forming Bjorken sums from the moments, we fit the sums using a series representation of the Bjorken Sum Rule to obtain the value and uncertainty for the coupling of the strong nuclear force, αs. Improved experimental methodologies paired with improved theoretical calculations permit the extraction of αs with a relative precision of 1.3 percent, competitive with the most accurate global analyses on world data of Deep-Inelastic Scattering.