Hall B Wide Angle
Seen is a wide angle photo of the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer located inside experimental Hall B at Jefferson Lab in Newport News, Va., on Wednesday March, 29, 2023. (Photo by Aileen Devlin | Jefferson Lab)
Hall B is the site of the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer called CLAS12. Powerful magnets steer the electron beam into a target in the experimental hall. The beam's individual electrons smash into the protons and neutrons inside the nuclei of atoms in the target. These violent collisions produce new particles; heavier versions of the familiar protons and neutrons as well a whole variety of intermediate mass particles called "mesons". The outgoing electron that collided with the target nucleus, as well as the produced particles, go flying out into our detector, where they're measured.
Our job as particle physicists is to use these measurements to try to deduce the underlying structure of protons and neutrons in the target and to try to understand the forces that create these particles.
Hall B Wide Angle
Seen is a wide angle photo of the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer located inside experimental Hall B at Jefferson Lab in Newport News, Va., on Wednesday March, 29, 2023. (Photo by Aileen Devlin | Jefferson Lab)
Hall B is the site of the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer called CLAS12. Powerful magnets steer the electron beam into a target in the experimental hall. The beam's individual electrons smash into the protons and neutrons inside the nuclei of atoms in the target. These violent collisions produce new particles; heavier versions of the familiar protons and neutrons as well a whole variety of intermediate mass particles called "mesons". The outgoing electron that collided with the target nucleus, as well as the produced particles, go flying out into our detector, where they're measured.
Our job as particle physicists is to use these measurements to try to deduce the underlying structure of protons and neutrons in the target and to try to understand the forces that create these particles.