Probing the Standard Model with Parity-Violating Electron Scattering par David S. Armstrong (College of William & Mary)

Friday 9 Oct 2009, 11:00 → 12:00 Europe/Paris

salle 09

Electroweak interference leads to the presence of parity violation in electron scattering, which is measurable in experiments that scatter polarized electrons from unpolarized targets. This phenomenon was originally exploited in the classic SLAC experiment in the 1970s (C.Y. Prescott et al., Phys. Lett. 84 B(1979)524) which was pivotal in establishing the neutral current sector of the Standard Model. The technique has been used in recent years as a probe of nucleon structure, such as the determination of the vector strange form factors, in experiments at MIT/Bates, MAMI and Jefferson Lab. More recently, renewed attention has been focussed on searches for physics beyond the Standard Model using this method. Sensitivities to some classes of new physics in these low-energy measurements can rival the reach of collider experiments. One such experiment is the upcoming QWeak experiment which will be reviewed, as well as the prospects for related measurements proposed for Jefferson Lab after the upgrade to 12 GeV beam energy.