Precise measurement of the nuclear dependence of structure functions in light nuclei

Abstract

The EMC effect has been with us for over 20 years. During this time, the nuclear dependence of the structure functions, and therefore the underlying quark distributions, has been studied with much success. However, the bulk of the experimental effort has been to measure the effect in heavy nuclei where it has the same zBj dependence and differs only in magnitude. Calculations predict large differences in both the magnitude and zBj-dependence of the EMC effect in 3He and 4He and precise measurements of the EMC effect in these nuclei could be used to distinguish between existing models. E03-103 measured the inclusive electron scattering cross-section on 1H, 2H, 3He, and 4He, as well as the heavier targets Be, C, Cu, and Au. This thesis describes the experiment in detail and presents results for 3He, 4He, and carbon. These data provide the first measurement of the EMC effect in 3He above xBj > 0.4, and improve upon the existing measurement of the effect in 4He.