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Deur, Alexandre

Publications and source records attributed to Deur, Alexandre.

33 records · Page 2
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DOE OSTI2017

Superconformal Algebraic Approach to Hadron Structure

Fundamental aspects of nonperturbative QCD dynamics which are not obvious from its classical Lagrangian, such as the emergence of a mass scale and confinement, the existence of a zero mass bound state, the appearance of universal Regge trajectories and the breaking of chiral symmetry are incorporated from the onset in an effective theory based on superconformal quantum mechanics and its embedding in a higher dimensional gravitational theory. In addition, superconformal quantum mechanics gives remarkable connections between the light meson and nucleon spectra. This new approach to hadron physics is also suitable to describe nonperturbative QCD observables based on structure functions, such as GPDs, which are not amenable to a first-principle computation. The formalism is also successful in the description of form factors, the nonperturbative behavior of the strong coupling and diffractive processes. We also discuss in this article how the framework can be extended rather successfully to the heavy-light hadron sector.

de Teramond, Guy F.↗
DOE OSTI2017

Analysis of nucleon electromagnetic form factors from light-front holographic QCD: The spacelike region

We present a comprehensive analysis of the space-like nucleon electromagnetic form factors and their flavor decomposition within the framework of light-front holographic QCD. We show that the inclusion of the higher Fock components $|{qqqq\bar{q}}$ has a significant effect on the spin-flip elastic Pauli form factor and almost zero effect on the spin-conserving Dirac form factor. We present light-front holographic QCD results for the proton and neutron form factors at any momentum transfer range, including asymptotic predictions, and show that our results agree with the available experimental data with high accuracy. In order to correctly describe the Pauli form factor we need an admixture of a five quark state of about 30$\%$ in the proton and about 40$\%$ in the neutron. We also extract the nucleon charge and magnetic radii and perform a flavor decomposition of the nucleon electromagnetic form factors. The free parameters needed to describe the experimental nucleon form factors are very few: two parameters for the probabilities of higher Fock states for the spin-flip form factor and a phenomenological parameter $r$, required to account for possible SU(6) spin-flavor symmetry breaking effects in the neutron, whereas the Pauli form factors are normalized to the experimental values of the anomalous magnetic moments. As a result, the covariant spin structure for the Dirac and Pauli nucleon form factors prescribed by AdS$_5$ semiclassical gravity incorporates the correct twist scaling behavior from hard scattering and also leads to vector dominance at low energy.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Nucleon spin structure studies at Jefferson Lab

We report on the low and moderate $Q^2$ nucleon spin structure measurements done at Jefferson Lab, examining specifically the inclusive program. We discuss what the data teach us about quark confinement and the emergence of the effective hadronic degrees of freedom from the fundamental partonic ones. We show how this experimental program has reached its goal by providing a precise mapping at low, intermediate and moderately high $Q^2$ which has resulted in many progress, e.g. with Chiral Perturbation Theory. Another example of a recent advance imputable to the JLab spin data is the improved understanding of $\alpha_s$ at low energy, which allowed Light--Front Holographic QCD, an approximation to non-perturbative QCD, to derive the hadron spectrum from $\Lambda_s$.

Deur, Alexandre↗
DOE OSTI2016

Polarized fusion, its Implications and plans for Direct Measurements in a Tokamak

Our energy-hungry world is burning. A long-term solution, possibly the only ultimate one, that is just approaching the horizon after decades of struggle, is fusion. Recent developments allow us to apply techniques from spin physics to advance the viability of this critical option. The cross section for the primary fusion fuel in a tokamak reactor, D+T /to sigma + n, would be increased by a factor of 1.5 if the fuels were spin polarized parallel to the local field. Simulations predict further non-linear power gains in large-scale machines such as ITER, due to increased alpha heating. These are significant enhancements that could lower the requirements needed to reach ignition and could be used to extend useful reactor life by compensating for neutron degradation of critical components. The potential realization of such benefits rests on the survival of spin polarization for periods comparable to the energy containment time. Interest in polarized fuel options had an initial peak of activity in the 1980s, where calculations predicted that polarizations could in fact survive a plasma environment. However, concerns were raised regarding the cumulative impacts of fuel recycling from the reactor walls. In addition, the technical challenges of preparing and handling polarized materials prevented any direct tests. Over the last several decades, this situation has changed dramatically. Detailed simulations of the ITER plasma have projected negligible wall recycling in a high power reactor. In addition, a combination of advances in three areas - polarized material technologies developed for nuclear and particle physics as well as for medical imaging, polymer pellets developed for Inertial Con nement, and cryogenic injection guns developed for delivering fuel into the core of tokamaks - have matured to the point where a direct in situ measurement is possible. A Jefferson Lab - DIII-D/General Atomics - University of Virginia collaboration is developing designs for a proof-of-principle polarization survival experiment using the isospin mirror reaction, D +3 He /to sigma + p, at the DIII-D tokamak in San Diego.

Sandorfi, Andrew↗
DOE OSTI2015

The Spin Structure of the nucleon

This talk will review the status of the experiments studying the spin structure of the nucleon. After a brief overview of the topics, I will focus on the program measuring the generalized Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn (GDH) sum, in the context of connecting the effective descriptions of the strong force at long distances to its fundamental partonic description at short distances. The generalized GDH sum rule is a theoretical relation valid at any distance. Consequently, it can be an Ariadne's thread to follow to understand how the transition between the partonic to hadronic descriptions happens. Measurements at intermediate and short distances have been made available in the 1990s and 2000s. Long distance results are being now finalized. With them, a large part of this experimental program will be completed. I will give the status of the measurements at long distances. I will then conclude the talk with a practical example on how the GDH data are used to connect the fundamental and effective descriptions of the strong force. Such example demonstrates how the generalized GDH program is bearing fruits.

Deur, Alexandre↗
DOE OSTI2015

The Light-Front Schrödinger Equation and Determination of the Perturbative QCD Scale from Color Confinement

The valence Fock-state wavefunctions of the light-front QCD Hamiltonian satisfy a relativistic equation of motion with an effective confining potential U which systematically incorporates the effects of higher quark and gluon Fock states. If one requires that the effective action which underlies the QCD Lagrangian remains conformally invariant and extends the formalism of de Alfaro, Fubini and Furlan to light front Hamiltonian theory, the potential U has a unique form of a harmonic oscillator potential, and a mass gap arises. The result is a nonperturbative relativistic light-front quantum mechanical wave equation which incorporates color confinement and other essential spectroscopic and dynamical features of hadron physics, including a massless pion for zero quark mass and linear Regge trajectories with the same slope in the radial quantum number n and orbital angular momentum L. Only one mass parameter κ appears. Light-front holography thus provides a precise relation between the bound-state amplitudes in the fifth dimension of AdS space and the boost-invariant light-front wavefunctions describing the internal structure of hadrons in physical space-time. We also show how the mass scale κ underlying confinement and hadron masses determines the scale Λ {ovr MS} controlling the evolution of the perturbative QCD coupling. The relation between scales is obtained by matching the nonperturbative dynamics, as described by an effective conformal theory mapped to the light-front and its embedding in AdS space, to the perturbative QCD regime computed to four-loop order. The result is an effective coupling defined at all momenta. The predicted value Λ {ovr MS }=0.328±0.034 GeV is in agreement with the world average 0.339±0.010 GeV. The analysis applies to any renormalization scheme.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2015

The relation between the fundamental scale controlling high-energy interactions of quarks and the proton mass

Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) provides a fundamental description of the physics binding quarks into protons, neutrons, and other hadrons. QCD is well understood at short distances where perturbative calculations are feasible. Establishing an explicit relation between this regime and the large-distance physics of quark confinement has been a long-sought goal. A major challenge is to relate the parameter Λ s , which controls the predictions of perturbative QCD (pQCD) at short distances, to the masses of hadrons. Here we show how new theoretical insights into QCD's behavior at large and small distances lead to an analytical relation between hadronic masses and Λ s . The resulting prediction, Λ s = 0.341 ± 0.024 GeV agrees well with the experimental value 0.339 ± 0.016 GeV. Conversely, the experimental value of Λ s can be used to predict the masses of hadrons, a task which had so far only been accomplished through intensive numerical lattice calculations, requiring several phenomenological input parameters.

HEPPH↗
DOE OSTI2014

Precision Measurement of the Neutron Twist-3 Matrix Element dn2: Probing Color Forces

Double-spin asymmetries and absolute cross sections were measured at large Bjorken x (0.25 lte x lte 0.90), in both the deep-inelastic and resonance regions, by scattering longitudinally polarized electrons at beam energies of 4.7 and 5.9 GeV from a transversely and longitudinally polarized 3He target. In this dedicated experiment, the spin structure function g2 on 3He was determined with precision at large x, and the neutron twist-three matrix element dn2 was measured at ?Q2? of 3.21 and 4.32 GeV2/c2, with an absolute precision of about 10?5. Our results are found to be in agreement with lattice QCD calculations and resolve the disagreement found with previous data at ?Q2?= 5 GeV2/c2. Combining dn2 and a newly extracted twist-four matrix element, fn2, the average neutron color electric and magnetic forces were extracted and found to be of opposite sign and about 60 MeV/fm in magnitude.

Posik, Matthew↗
DOE OSTI2014

Boosting Deuteron Polarization in HD Targets: Experience of moving spins between H and D with RF methods during the E06-101 experiment at Jefferson Lab

Solid HDice targets are polarized by bringing the HD crystal to thermal equilibrium at low temperature and high magnetic field, typically 10-20 mK and 15 Tesla, at Jefferson Lab. In this regime, due to its smaller magnetic moment, the resulting polarization for D is always at least three times smaller than for H. The controlled amount of polarizing catalysts, o-H2 and p-D2, used in the process of reaching a frozen-spin state, further limit the maximum achievable D polarization. Nonetheless, H and D polarizations can be transferred from one to the other by connecting the H and D sub-states of the HD system with RF. In a large target, the RF power needed for such transitions is effectively limited by non-uniformities in the RF field. High efficiency transfers can require substantial RF power levels, and a tuned-RF circuit is needed to prevent large temperature excursions of the holding cryostat. In this paper, we compare the advantages and limitations of two different RF transfer methods to increase D polarization, Forbidden Adiabatic and Saturated Forbidden RF Transitions. The experience with the HD targets used during the recently completed E06-101 experiment in Hall-B of Jefferson Lab is discussed.

Wei, Xiangdong↗
DOE OSTI2014

Electrons on the HDice target: Results and analysis of test runs at JLab in 2012

During the Jefferson Labaratory E06-101 (g14) experiment \cite{g14} utilizing photons on solid HD and performed in Hall B, two opportunities arose for targets to be subjected to multi-GeV electron beams in week-long campaigns of dose accumulation and NMR polarization measurements. This was in preparation for conditionally approved electron experiments after the 12 GeV JLab upgrade\cite{trans}. Besides the important thermal effects, evidence consistent with screening of the NMR and with decay of the target polarization was observed during bombardment and for a time afterwards. The solid hydrogens have been the subject of previous radiation damage studies, both for possible polarized DT fusion\cite{Forrest97} and for production of dynamically polarized nuclear targets\cite{Radtke04}. We synthesize all this information into an overall picture that can guide on-going development of the HDice target system for future use.

Lowry, Michael↗