Facets of Physical Sciences

Chair: Dr. Stephen Bueltmann, Department of Physics Presenters: Colton Katsarelis, Katheryne McMahan, Timothy Naginey, James Porter, Eric Stac

Facets of Experimental Physics at ODU

Chair: Dr. Stephen Bueltmann, Department of Physic

Dark sectors 2016 Workshop: community report

This report, based on the Dark Sectors workshop at SLAC in April 2016, summarizes the scientific importance of searches for dark sector dark matter and forces at masses beneath the weak-scale, the status of this broad international field, the important milestones motivating future exploration, and promising experimental opportunities to reach these milestones over the next 5-10 years

Status of the BONuS12 Radial Time Projection Chamber

International audiencePart of the experimental program in Hall B of the Jefferson Lab, Virginia, USA is dedicated to studying neutron structure functions using deep inelastic scattering on nuclei. For this purpose, the BONuS12 experiment will detect low momentum recoil protons in coincidence with scattered electrons. The protons will be detected by a second-generation Radial Time Projection Chamber (RTPC) using triple Gas Electron Multiplier foils for amplification while the scattered electrons will be detected by the CLAS12 spectrometer installed in Hall B. The following article presents the status of the BONuS12 RTPC detector that will take data within the next 2 years. The main improvements made from the previous BONuS RTPC: the new electronics and mounting process are presented. We also detail some aspect of the gas simulation

The Heavy Photon Search Experiment

The Heavy Photon Search (HPS) experiment is designed to search for a new vector boson $A^\prime$ in the mass range of 20 MeV/$c^2$ to 220 MeV/$c^2$ that kinetically mixes with the Standard Model photon with couplings $\epsilon^2 >10^{-10}$. In addition to the general importance of exploring light, weakly coupled physics that is difficult to probe with high-energy colliders, a prime motivation for this search is the possibility that sub-GeV thermal relics constitute dark matter, a scenario that requires a new comparably light mediator, where models with a hidden $U(1)$ gauge symmetry, a "dark", "hidden sector", or "heavy" photon, are particularly attractive. HPS searches for visible signatures of these heavy photons, taking advantage of their small coupling to electric charge to produce them via a process analogous to bremsstrahlung in a fixed target and detect their subsequent decay to $\mathrm{e}^+ \mathrm{e}^-$ pairs in a compact spectrometer. In addition to searching for $\mathrm{e}^+ \mathrm{e}^-$ resonances atop large QED backgrounds, HPS has the ability to precisely measure decay lengths, resulting in unique sensitivity to dark photons, as well as other long-lived new physics. After completion of the experiment and operation of engineering runs in 2015 and 2016 at the JLab CEBAF, physics runs in 2019 and 2021 have provided datasets that are now being analyzed to search for dark photons and other new phenomena

Dark Sectors 2016 Workshop: Community Report

This report, based on the Dark Sectors workshop at SLAC in April 2016, summarizes the scientific importance of searches for dark sector dark matter and forces at masses beneath the weak-scale, the status of this broad international field, the important milestones motivating future exploration, and promising experimental opportunities to reach these milestones over the next 5-10 years