Our group carries out high energy nuclear physics research, based on a variety of experimental programs at particle accelerators worldwide. We study the structure of nucleons, both individually and as correlated two-nucleon clusters.
Currently, we run experiments at the Jefferson Laboratory in Newport News, Virginia, the MAMI electron accelerator facility in Mainz, Germany, and the Paul Scherrer Institute in Zurich, Switzerland.
Our goal is to solve puzzles and answer fundamental outstanding questions regarding nucleon and nuclear structure. Some of the questions that we are now studying are:
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How do the strong interactions between quarks/gluons work to form nucleons?
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To what extent is a nucleon bound inside a nucleus different from a free nucleon?
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What happens when two nucleons are very close to each other, so that their wave functions strongly overlap?
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Can cold dense nuclear matter, an important component of neutron stars, be studied at particle accelerator experiments?
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Do short-range neutron-proton correlations behave very differently from short range neutron-neutron correlations?
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Can the small concentration of protons inside neutron stars significantly affect the star’s structure?
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Why does the proton radius measured by electron-proton scattering differ from it’s radius measured by muonic Hydrogen.
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Dark photon are suggested to exist as heavy gauge bosons that couple weakly to electrons. Can they be found at JLab by electroproduction on a nuclear target?
