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The CLAS12 RICH detector installed in the Hall B of the Jefferson Laboratory has been designated to provide clean kaon identification in the momentum range from 3 to 8 GeV/c. The detector adopted a novel hybrid design, with aerogel radiator, a system of planar and spherical mirrors and a highly segmented readout system based on multi-anode photomultipliers. We present here the status of the detector and its performance after a few years of operation. 

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 CLAS12 deep-inelastic scattering experiment at the upgraded 12 GeV continuous electron beam accelerator facility of Jefferson Lab conjugates luminosity and wide acceptance to study the 3D nucleon structure in the yet poorly explored valence region, and to perform precision measurements in hadron spectroscopy. A large area ring-imaging Cherenkov detector has been designed to achieve the required hadron identification in the momentum range from 3 GeV/c to 8 GeV/c, with the kaon rate about one order of magnitude lower than the rate of pions and protons. The adopted solution comprises aerogel radiator and composite mirrors in a novel hybrid optics design, where either direct or reflected light could be imaged in a high-packed and high segmented photon detector. The first RICH module was assembled during the second half of 2017 and installed at the beginning of January 2018, in time for the start of the experiment. The second RICH module, planned with the goal to be ready for the beginning of the operation with polarized targets, has been timely built despite the complications caused by the pandemic crisis and successfully installed in June 2022. The detector performance is here discussed with emphasis on the operation and stability during the data-taking, calibration and alignment procedures, reconstruction and pattern recognition algorithms, and particle identification. 

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. 

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. 

The goal of the LHCspin project is to develop innovative solutions for measuring the 3D structure of nucleons in high-energy polarized fixed-target collisions at LHC, exploring new processes and exploiting new probes in a unique, previously unexplored, kinematic regime. A precise multi-dimensional description of the hadron structure has, in fact, the potential to deepen our understanding of the strong interactions and to provide a much more precise framework for measuring both Standard Model and Beyond Standard Model observables. This ambitious task poses its basis on the recent experience with the successful installation and operation of the SMOG2 unpolarized gas target in front of the LHCb spectrometer. Besides allowing for interest- ing physics studies ranging from astrophysics to heavy-ion physics, SMOG2 provides an ideal benchmark for studying beam-target dynamics at the LHC and demonstrates the feasibility of simultaneous operation with beam-beam collisions. With the installation of the proposed polarized target system, LHCb will become the first experiment to simultaneously collect data from unpolarized beam-beam collisions at √s=14 TeV and polarized and unpolar- ized beam-target collisions at √sNN ∼100 GeV. LHCspin has the potential to open new frontiers in physics by exploiting the capabilities of the world’s most powerful collider and one of the most advanced spectrometers. This document also highlights the need to perform an R&D campaign and the commissioning of the apparatus at the LHC Interaction Region 4 during the Run 4, before its final installation in LHCb. This opportunity could also allow to undertake preliminary physics measurements with unprecedented conditions.