Volume 380 - Particles and Nuclei International Conference 2021 (PANIC2021) - QCD, spin physics and chiral dynamics
Charge-averaged elastic lepton-proton scattering cross section results from OLYMPUS
A.W. Schmidt
Full text: pdf
Pre-published on: March 10, 2022
Published on: May 24, 2022
Abstract
Measurements of the proton's form factor ratio made with polarization transfer show a striking
discrepancy relative to the ratio extracted from unpolarized elastic electron-proton scattering cross sections. One hypothesis is that the discrepancy is caused by hard two-photon exchange (TPE), a typically neglected radiative correction that may bias the two approaches differently. This hypothesis has been challenging to confirm. Theoretical estimates of TPE are model-dependent, and recent experimental determinations of TPE lacked the kinematic reach to be conclusive. The possible impact of TPE remains a cloud over our knowledge of the proton's form factors. Recently, the OLYMPUS experiment published new elastic scattering cross sections that are insensitive to the effects of TPE: specifically the average of electron-proton and positron-proton cross sections. The OLYMPUS experiment, conducted at DESY, Hamburg, measured elastic $e^-p$ and $e^+p$ scattering by detecting the scattered lepton and recoiling proton in coincidence in a large-acceptance, toroidal magnetic spectrometer. OLYMPUS was designed to measure the $e^+p/e^-p$ cross section ratio to isolate the effects of TPE. By exploiting the over determined kinematics of the reaction, the absolute efficiency of spectrometer could be verified, allowing cross sections to be extracted from the data. These results can help refine our knowledge of the proton's form factors, especially in the squared momentum-transfer region of 1--2 GeV$^2$, where some previous measurements are in tension.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22323/1.380.0387
How to cite

Metadata are provided both in "article" format (very similar to INSPIRE) as this helps creating very compact bibliographies which can be beneficial to authors and readers, and in "proceeding" format which is more detailed and complete.

Open Access