Honors Theses and Capstones

Date of Award

Spring 2018

Project Type

Senior Honors Thesis

College or School

CEPS

Department

Physics

Program or Major

Physics

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

First Advisor

Karl Slifer

Second Advisor

Rikutaro Yoshida

Third Advisor

Yulia Furletova

Abstract

The Hadron Electron Ring Accelerator (HERA) in Germany, which ran from 1992 to 2007, is to date the only high energy electron and proton collider. The ZEUS detector at HERA measured the collisions of 27.5 GeV electrons with 920 GeV protons. Elastic vector meson production was measured during the first phase of HERA (HERA-I) from 1992 to 2000 before HERA was upgraded in 2003 (HERA-II) with increased luminosity. The goal of this project was to analyze data collected during the HERA-II run to identify and quantify the exclusive production of the  vector meson. Runs from the ZEUS experiment were taken from 2005, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 136 pb-1 . The  meson was detected with masses consistent with their theoretical and previously observed invariant masses and the 𝛾 βˆ—π‘ cross section was measured in the kinematic range 5 ≀ 𝑄 2 ≀ 70𝐺𝑒𝑉2 . This is the first time the  vector meson from HERA-II have been studied. Additional analysis to determine systematic errors is necessary to yield information relevant to physics interests. Given that the next highest priority in nuclear physics is the construction of an electron ion collider, resolving as much information from previous measurements at HERA-II will help to guide the research.

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