Worldwide Search for the Neutron EDM

Existing limits on the electric dipole moment (EDM) of the free neutron have provided critical constraints on new sources of CP violation for more than 60 years. A new round of searches are actively underway with the goal of improving the sensitivity to CP violation by up to two orders-of-magnitude. The status of these new searches will be discussed, including recent progress on the nEDM experiment to be carried out at the Fundamental Neutron Physics Beamline at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Spallation Neutron Source.Comment: Talk presented CIPANP2018. 8 pages, LaTeX, 2 pdf figure

Tests of Fundamental Symmetries with Neutrons

Because of recent technological developments, new opportunities to test fundamental symmetries using cold and ultra-cold neutrons will become available in the next several years. These tests include studies of the parity-violating hadronic weak interaction, searches for new symmetries beyond the standard model using neutron decay and searches for new sources of Charge-conjugation/Parity (CP) violation through the measurement of the neutron Electric Dipole Moment (EDM)

Scaling of the F_2 Structure Function in Nuclei and Quark Distributions at x > 1

We present new data on electron scattering from a range of nuclei taken in Hall C at Jefferson Lab. For heavy nuclei, we observe a rapid falloff in the cross section for x > 1, which is sensitive to short-range contributions to the nuclear wave function, and in deep inelastic scattering corresponds to probing extremely high momentum quarks. This result agrees with higher energy muon scattering measurements, but is in sharp contrast to neutrino scattering measurements which suggested a dramatic enhancement in the distribution of the “superfast” quarks probed at x > 1. The falloff at x > 1 is noticeably stronger in ^2H and ^3He, but nearly identical for all heavier nuclei

Evidence for Quark-Hadron Duality in the Proton Spin Asymmetry A_1

Spin-dependent lepton-nucleon scattering data have been used to investigate the validity of the concept of quark-hadron duality for the spin asymmetry A_1. Longitudinally polarized positrons were scattered off a longitudinally polarized hydrogen target for values of Q^2 between 1.2 and 12  GeV^2 and values of W^2 between 1 and 4  GeV^2. The average double-spin asymmetry in the nucleon resonance region is found to agree with that measured in deep-inelastic scattering at the same values of the Bjorken scaling variable x. This finding implies that the description of A_1 in terms of quark degrees of freedom is valid also in the nucleon resonance region for values of Q^2 above 1.6  GeV^2

Single-spin azimuthal asymmetries in electroproduction of neutral pions in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering

A single-spin asymmetry in the azimuthal distribution of neutral pions relative to the lepton scattering plane has been measured for the first time in deep-inelastic scattering of positrons off longitudinally polarized protons. The analyzing power in the sinφ moment of the cross section is 0.019±0.007(stat)±0.003(syst). This result is compared to single-spin asymmetries for charged pion production measured in the same kinematic range. The π^0 asymmetry is of the same size as the π^+ asymmetry and shows a similar dependence on the relevant kinematic variables. The asymmetry is described by a phenomenological calculation based on a fragmentation function that represents sensitivity to the transverse polarization of the struck quark

Measurement of the Beam-Spin Azimuthal Asymmetry Associated with Deeply-Virtual Compton Scattering

The beam-spin asymmetry in hard electroproduction of photons has been measured. The data have been accumulated by the HERMES experiment at DESY using the HERA 27.6 GeV longitudinally polarized positron beam and an unpolarized hydrogen-gas target. The asymmetry in the azimuthal distribution of the produced photons in the angle φ relative to the lepton scattering plane was determined with respect to the helicity state of the incoming positron beam. The beam-spin analyzing power in the sinφ moment was measured to be -0.23±0.04(stat)±0.03(syst) in the missing-mass range below 1.7 GeV. The observed asymmetry is attributed to the interference of the Bethe-Heitler and deeply virtual Compton scattering processes

Status of Electric Dipole Moment (EDM) searches

Motivated by the potential reach to high mass scales, many new searches for CP-violating electric dipole moments (EDM) of leptons, nucleons, atoms and molecules are underway. In many cases novel techniques are being applied to greatly increase the sensitivity to new physics (NP). The importance of improved searches in complimentary systems and the potential sensitivities of these new searches are discussed

Coherent π^0 photoproduction on the deuteron up to 4 GeV

The differential cross section for ^2H(γ,d)π^0 has been measured at deuteron center-of-mass angles of 90° and 136°. This work reports the first data for this reaction above a photon energy of 1 GeV, and permits a test of the apparent constituent counting rule and reduced nuclear amplitude behavior as observed in elastic ed scattering. Measurements were performed up to a photon energy of 4.0 GeV, and are in good agreement with previous lower energy measurements. Overall, the data are inconsistent with both constituent-counting rule and reduced nuclear amplitude predictions

Extracting nucleon strange and anapole form factors from world data

The complete world set of parity violating electron scattering data up to Q^2~0.3 GeV^2 is analysed. We extract the current experimental determination of the strange electric and magnetic form factors of the proton, as well as the weak axial form factors of the proton and neutron, at Q^2 = 0.1 GeV^2. Within experimental uncertainties, we find that the strange form factors are consistent with zero, as are the anapole contributions to the axial form factors. Nevertheless, the correlation between the strange and anapole contributions suggest that there is only a small probability that these form factors all vanish simultaneously.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figs; v2: version to appear in PR