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Abstract We report on a measurement of elastic electron scattering on argon performed with a novel cryogenic gas-jet target at the Mainz Microtron accelerator MAMI. The luminosity is estimated with the thermodynamical parameters of the target and by comparison to a calculation in distorted-wave Born approximation. The cross section, measured at new momentum transfers of 1.24 $$\hbox {fm}^{-1}$$ ${\text{fm}}^{-1}$ and 1.55 $$\hbox {fm}^{-1}$$ ${\text{fm}}^{-1}$ is in agreement with previous experiments performed with a traditional high-pressure gas target, as well as with modernab-initiocalculations employing state-of-the-art nuclear forces from chiral effective field theory. The nearly background-free measurement highlights the optimal properties of the gas-jet target for elements heavier than hydrogen, enabling new applications in hadron and nuclear physics. 

Pion photoproduction in the $\vec{\gamma }\vec{p}\to {\pi }^{0}p$ reaction has been measured in the FROzen Spin Target (FROST) experiment at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. In this experiment, circularly polarized photons with energies up to 3.082 GeV impinged on a transversely polarized frozen-spin target. Final-state protons were detected in the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) Large Acceptance Spectrometer. The polarization observables $T$ and $F$ have been extracted for $W$ from 1445 to 2525 MeV, of which the energy range is much broader, and the precision is better than the existing measurements in higher $W$ ranges. The data generally agree with predictions of present partial-wave analyses but also show marked differences for higher $W$ ranges. By incorporating the present data into the databases, the Scattering Analysis Interactive Data (SAID) fits have been improved with relatively small ${\chi }^2$ and significant changes in the parameters of the $\mathrm{\Delta }\left(1910\right)1/2^{+}$ and $N\left(2190\right)7/2^{-}$ have been found with the JüBo model. 

The polarization of $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ hyperons is preserved in the angular distribution of their decay products. This property allows one to study the spin structure of the $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ . In semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering where a high energy lepton interacts with a nucleon target and one or more hadrons and the scattered lepton are detected in the final state, the probability for a struck quark to impart the polarization of the lepton to the $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ may be measured. In particular, in electron-proton scattering this quantity may be related to the longitudinal light quark polarization of the $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ . Currently, limited experimental data cannot discriminate between different models of $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ spin structure. This work reports on the measurement of the longitudinal spin transfer $D_{L{L}^{\prime }}^{\mathrm{\Lambda }}$ to the $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ using data taken by the CLAS12 spectrometer at Jefferson Lab with a 10.6 GeV longitudinally polarized electron beam and an unpolarized hydrogen target. This measurement is the most precise to date, and, in comparison with theory predictions, it offers valuable insight into the relative dominance of current and target fragmentation in $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ production. 

We present measurements of the total and differential cross sections for near-threshold $J/\psi$ photoproduction obtained with the CLAS12 detector at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The results are based on data collected during the fall 2018 and spring 2019 running periods, using electron beams with energies of 10.6 and 10.2 GeV, respectively, scattered off a liquid-hydrogen target. Near-threshold $J/\psi$ photoproduction offers a unique sensitivity to the strong interaction in the nonperturbative regime of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). The energy dependence of the cross section constrains the underlying $J/\psi$ production mechanisms, including multigluon exchange and potential baryonic excitations. Additionally, the $t$ dependence of the differential cross section can be related to the transverse spatial distribution of gluons in the proton, providing critical input for theoretical descriptions of the gluonic structure of the proton. An interpretation of the results in terms of the gluon content of the proton is presented, providing new experimental constraints on QCD-inspired models of the proton structure and the role of gluonic degrees of freedom in hadronic mass generation. 

Abstract A new type of radio frequency (RF) timing technique is presented. It is based on a helical deflector, which performs circular or elliptical sweeps of photo- or secondary electrons, accelerated to keV energies, by means of RF fields in the 500–1000 MHz range. By converting a time distribution of the electrons to a hit position distribution on a circle or ellipse, this device achieves extremely precise timing, similar to streak cameras. Detection of the scanned electrons, using a position sensitive detector based on microchannel plates and a delay line anode, resulted in a timing resolution of 10 ps, which can be potentially improved to 1 ps. RF-Timer-based single photon and heavy ion detectors have potential applications in different fields of science and industry, which include high energy nuclear physics and imaging technologies. This technique could play a crucial role in developing of sub 10 ps Time-of-Flight Positron Emission Tomography. 

Extracting accurate results from neutrino oscillation and cross section experiments requires accurate simulation of the neutrino-nucleus interaction. The rescattering of outgoing hadrons (final state interactions) by the rest of the nucleus is an important component of these interactions. We present a new measurement of proton transparency (defined as the fraction of outgoing protons that emerge without significant rescattering) using electron-nucleus scattering data recorded by the CLAS detector at Jefferson Laboratory on helium, carbon, and iron targets. This analysis uses a new data-driven method to extract the transparency. It defines transparency as the ratio of electron-scattering events with a detected proton to quasi-elastic electron-scattering events where a proton should have been knocked out. Our results are consistent with previous measurements that determined the transparency from the ratio of measured events to theoretically predicted events. We find that the GENIE event generator, which is widely used by oscillation experiments to simulate neutrino-nucleus interactions, needs to better describe both the nuclear ground state and proton rescattering in order to reproduce our measured transparency ratios, especially at lower proton momenta.