Theses and Dissertations

Adesh Subedi

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Dunne, James A

Committee Member

Smith, Gregory R

Committee Member

Dutta, Dipangkar

Committee Member

Moong, Gautam Rupak Lan Tai

Committee Member

Srinivasan, Radhakrishnan

Date of Degree

12-13-2014

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Applied Physics

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D)

College

James Worth Bagley College of Engineering

Department

Applied Physics Program

Abstract

The Qweak experiment has taken data to make a 2.5 percent measurement of parity violating elastic ep asymmetry in the four momentum transfer region of 0.0250 (GeV/c)2. This asymmetry is proportional to the weak charge of the proton, which is related to the weak mixing angle, sin2(thetaW). The final Qweak measurement will provide the most precise measurement of the weak mixing angle below the Z° pole to test the Standard Model prediction. A description of the experimental apparatus is provided in this dissertation. The experiment was carried out using a longitudinally polarized electron beam of up to 180 microampere on a 34.5 cm long unpolarized liquid hydrogen target. The Qweak target is not only the world’s highest cryogenic target ever built for a parity experiment but also is the least noisy target. This dissertation provides a detailed description of this target and presents a thorough analysis of the target performance. Statistical analysis of Run 1 data, collected between Feb - May 2011, is done to extract a blinded parity violating asymmetry of size--299.7 +/- 13.4 (stat.) +/- 17.2 (syst.) +/- 68 (blinding) parts-per-billion. This resulted in a preliminary proton’s weak charge of value 0.0865 +/- 0.0085, a 9% measurement. Based on this blinded asymmetry, the weak mixing angle was determined to be sin2(thetaW) = 0.23429 +/- 0.00211.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/18707

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