Date Thesis Awarded

5-2011

Access Type

Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only

Degree Name

Bachelors of Science (BS)

Department

Physics

Advisor

David Stairs Armstrong

Committee Members

Charles Perdrisat

Todd D. Averett

Sarah Day

Abstract

The Q-weak Experiment, currently running at Jefferson Lab, uses parity-violating electron-proton scattering to measure the weak charge of the proton. The weak charge of the proton is explicity predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. Thus, by comparing Q-weak's experimentally determined value to the theoretically predicted value of the weak charge, this experiment will test the standard model. One component of the experimental apparatus is a set of four vertical drift chambers, constructed at the College of William and Mary. These drift chambers are used to track electrons in the Q-weak experiment. The research presented in this paper focuses on optimizing the performance of these drift chambers, by analyzing how their behavior varies with operating conditions. Optimizing the performance of these chambers will help Q-weak to keep experimental uncertainties to a minimum.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Comments

Thesis is part of Honors ETD pilot project, 2008-2013. Migrated from Dspace in 2016.

On-Campus Access Only

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