BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:Data::ICal 0.22 BEGIN:VEVENT DESCRIPTION:Xiaochao Zheng\, UVA-Physics\n\n
The word "\;atom"\; (a-tomos) origina
tes from ancient Greek philosophers\, who argued that objects can be event
ually divided into discrete\, small particles\, beyond which matter is no
longer cuttable. \; Our search for the answer to "\;What the matte
r is made of"\; has gone a long way\, from the first experimental evid
ence of atoms in the 1800'\;s\, to Rutherford'\;s alpha scattering o
n gold foils\, to modern day'\;s linear accelerators looking into the a
tomic nucleus. We now understand that matter is made of quarks and leptons
\, currently named elementary particles (objects of no size) that form the
foundation of the Standard Model of Particle Physics. However\, if we loo
k back at this journey\, one may wish to oppose the view of the ancient Gr
eeks and argue that quarks and leptons cannot be the end of the story\, th
at our quest for peeling the atomic onion may be a timeless journey.
\n
\nI will discuss the frontier research in electron scattering at t
he GeV energy level. I will focus on parity violation in electron scatteri
ng off the proton and the neutron and the extraction of neutral-weak effec
tive couplings between electrons and quarks\, and show how such high preci
sion measurements are now helping us venturing further into the study of s
ubatomic structure. \;