Precision measurements of electron-proton elastic scattering cross sections at large Q²

Abstract

The electromagnetic form factors are fundamental quantities characterizing the internal structure of the nucleon. Their measurements have provided significant insight into the spatial distribution and interaction of quarks inside the proton. The knowledge of high Q2 form factors proves essential in understanding the properties of quantum chromodynamics in the transition region from non-perturbative to perturbative behavior. It also provides important links to generalized parton distributions, which describe the three-dimensional structure of hadrons at the parton level. In view of the significant theoretical research activities in this field, high quality experimental data are crucial for providing stringent tests and benchmarks to guide and test different models. The form factors can be accessed in experiments by measuring elastic scattering of electrons off a hydrogen target. Experiment E12-07-108, which took place at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, conducted precise measurements of the unpolarized e-p elastic scattering cross section over a Q2 range of 0.6-16.5 GeV2 . This thesis presents the results for 7 kinematic settings with total uncertainties that are 1.5 times smaller than those of the existing data at large Q2 . The proton magnetic form factors were extracted using a parameterization of the form factor ratio obtained from recent polarized e-p scattering experiments. Comparisons to existing global and phenomenological fits are presented.