EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION AND MONTE CARLO SIMULATION OF QUASIELASTIC ELECTRON SCATTERING FROM HELIUM-3 CLUSTERS IN HELIUM-4

Abstract

Experiment E04-018 was conducted in Hall A of the Jefferson National Laboratory (JLab) from November 2006 through July 2007. The experiment used the two su- perconducting, high-resolution magnetic spectrometers of Hall A to detect scattered electrons and recoil nuclei. One goal of this experiment was to provide accurate data on the elastic charge form factor of 4He to high momentum transfers (up to Q2 = 77 fm^−2). The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and simulate a very unique and unex- pected class of data from this experiment. The work performed involved the analysis of electron scattering data with the 4He target of the JLab E04-018 experiment and Monte Carlo simulation studies of elastic and quasielastic electron scattering from the 4-He and 3-He few-body nuclear systems. The results of this experiment and the sim- ulations provide insights into the existence of A = 3 clustering in 4-He, and possibly in heavier nuclei.