Nuclear Physics Seminars

The RMS radius of the neutron distribution in a heavy nucleus RN provides an important test of nuclear theory. Furthermore RN is used in the determination of the density dependence of symmetry energy of neutron rich matter; this dependence is an important input in neutron star structure, heavy iron collision and atomic parity violation experiment calculations. In the past hadron scattering experiments with with pion, proton or anti-proton beams have been used to determine the neutron radii of heavy nuclei. However, these measurements suffer from uncertainties associated with the probe particle and the target nucleus. Electron scattering provides a model independent probe of nuclear radii. However, in electron scattering, the measurement of neutron distribution in a nucleus is much harder than the measurement of the proton distribution since the neutron is uncharged. Because the neutron weak charge is much large than that of the proton, PRex-II used the parity violating weak neutral interaction to probe the neutron distribution in the 208Pb nucleus, thus measuring the RMS neutron radius with high accuracy. The PRex-II experiment was performed from June to September 2019 in Jefferson lab experimental hall A using the High Resolution Spectrometer (HRS) pair. This seminar presents the details the PRex-II experiment as well as the preliminary results from HRS Optics calibration measurements and from the Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) detectors used for obtaining high rate calibration data.