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Physics

Experimental Nuclear and Hadronic Physics Research Group

We conduct research in experimental nuclear and hadronic physics. Our core research program centers on five areas:

  • nucleon electromagnetic form factors and structure functions,
  • nucleon spin-structure, polarized target development at William & Mary,
  • studies of nucleon structure and neutron distributions in nuclei via parity violation,
  • precision searches for physics beyond the Standard Model via the electromagnetic and the weak interactions,
  • studies of the light quark meson spectrum and searches for exotic hybrid mesons.

Many of our experiments use the intense 12 GeV electron beam at Jefferson Lab in nearby Newport News. We are actively involved in the QWeak, SoLID, MOLLER, and GlueX experiments, in the polarized 3He programs in Hall A, in the electromagnetic form factor and two-photon exchange programs in Halls A and C, and in deep-inelastic scattering experiments with the SuperBigBite spectrometer in Hall A. Members of our group are spokespersons on many of these experiments. Our faculty also actively collaborate on experiments in Mainz and in the ePIC experiment being developed for the Electron-Ion Collider to be located at Brookhaven National Lab. 

Our group consists of three full-time faculty members and several affiliated faculty members who are staff scientists at Jefferson Lab. The group is typically complemented with several postdoctoral fellows, ten graduate students, and several undergraduate students.

We are funded by the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy.

People
Full-time Faculty
Affiliate Faculty
Emeritus Faculty
Postdoctoral Researchers
Graduate Students

Selected Publications

For a complete list of publications by our group, please refer to InspireHEP.

Recent Graduates
PhD (since 2014)
  • Andrew Hurley, Advisor: J. Stevens “Partial Wave Analysis of Strange Mesons Decaying to K+p+p- in the Reaction ƴp → K+p+p- ^(1520) and the Commissioning of the GlueX DIRC Detector”(2022) 
    Currently: Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
  • Amy Schertz, Advisor: J. Stevens “Partial Wave Analysis of the ꙍp- Final State Photoproduced at GlueX.” (2022) 
    Currently: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Indiana University.
  • Timothy Hayward, Advisor: K. Griffioen "Dihadron Beam Spin Asymmetries on an Unpolarized Hydrogen Target with CLAS12" (2021)
    Currently: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  • Sebouh Paul, Advisor: K. Griffioen "Searching for a Dark Photon in the HPS Experiment"  (2018
    Currently: Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of California, Riverside.
  • Kurtis Bartlett, Advisor: W. Deconinck "First Measurements of the Parity-Violating and Beam-Normal Single-SpinAsymmetries in Elastic Electron-Aluminum Scattering"  (2018)
    Currently: Scientist, Los Alamos National Lab
  • James F. Dowd, Advisor: D. Armstrong “Probe of Electroweak Interference Effects in Non-Resonant Inelastic Electron-Proton Scattering” (2018)
  • Valerie M. Gray, Advisor: D. Armstrong "Determination of the Kinematics of the Qweak Experiment and Investigation of an Atomic Hydrogen Møller Polarimeter" (2017)
  • Siyuan Yang, Advisor: D. Armstrong “A Precision Measurement of the Weak Charge of Proton at Low Q2: Kinematics and Tracking.” (2016)
  • Scott Barcus, Advisor: T. Averett "Extraction and Parametrization of Isobaric Trinucleon Elastic Cross Sections and Form Factors" (2019)
  • Yang Wang, Advisor: T. Averett “Measurement of the Elastic ep Cross Section at Q2 = 0.66, 1.10, 1.51 and 1.65 GeV2.” (2017)
  • Melissa Cummings, Advisor: Todd Averett, "Investigating Proton Spin Structure: A Measurement of gp2 at Low Q2." (2016)
  • Juan Carlos Cornejo, Adviser: Wouter Deconinck, "Compton Scattering Polarimetry for the Determination of the Proton's Weak Charge Through Measurements of the Parity-Violating Asymmetry of 1H(e,e')p." (2015)
    Currently: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Carnegie Mellon University. 
  • Joshua Magee, Advisor: David Armstrong, "A Measurement of the Parity-Violating Asymmetry in Aluminum and its Contribution to a Measurement of the Proton’s Weak Charge." (2016)
    Currently: Postdoctoral Researcher, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. 
  • Joshua Hoskins, Advisor: David Armstrong, "Determination of the Proton's Weak-Charge via Parity Violating e-p Scattering." (2015)
    Currently: Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Manitoba, Canada. 
  • Eric Jensen, Advisor: Todd Averett, "A Search for a New Gauge Boson." (2014)
    Currently: Software Field Engineer, IBA Particle Therapy, Hampton University.
B.S. (since 2010)
  • Alice Perrin (2015): "3D Printing Scintillating Detectors for Field Emission Detection in Niobium SRF Cavities," with honors [PDF]
  • Oscar Deaver (2015): "Uniformity and Crosstalk in Multi-Anode Photomultiplier Tubes." [PDF]
  • Christopher Haufe (2015): "GEANT4 Simulation of Detector Properties in the MOLLER Experiment," with honors [PDF]
  • Marcus Starman (2015): "Effects of Hyperons on Pion Asymmetries Measured in the Qweak Experiment," with honors [PDF]
  • Jack Anderson (2014): "Simulations for the SoLID Detector." [PDF]
  • Rachel Taverner (2014): "Determination and Simulation of Kinematic Parameters in the Qweak Experiment," with honors [PDF]
  • Peyton Rose (2011): "Optimization of Drift Chamber Performance for the Qweak Experiment", with honors.
  • Ryan Zielinski (2010): "Testing and Analysis of Q-Weak's Multiplexing Electronics System".
Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. PHY-2412825. This work was supported in part by the Department Of Energy under Grant No. DE-FG02-96ER41003 and DE-SC0023978.