This project supports the research and education efforts of the Hampton University (HU) nuclear experimental group. This group was established 15 years ago to address a critical national need in a science where African-Americans are severely under-represented. According to American Institute of Physics statistics, HU now graduates over half of the doctoral degrees in physics awarded to African-Americans annually.
The HU group has spearheaded research in low-energy quark-hadron duality, and, more generally, the transition between the Baryon-Meson and the Quark-Gluon description of nucleons, including effects of the nuclear medium on these nucleons, and the investigation of low-energy fragmentation processes. In another major effort, the group has successfully developed a first-ever effective free neutron target for the BONUS experiment at Jefferson Lab (JLab). During the upcoming years, the group will focus on (i) the analysis of JLab experiments still in queue or just executed; (ii) global analysis of JLab structure function program results, including proton, deuteron, and nuclear targets, with an emphasis on the large x region; (iii) preparation for the MINER A project, a neutrino physics effort to precisely map the response of nuclei to the axial couplings; and (iv) gearing up for preparations for JLab 12 GeV science and construction projects.
