Dave Hornidge, Department of Physics

Experimental Medium-Energy Subatomic Physics and the Mainz Microtron

My research has to do with matter on the smallest scales, where we examine atomic nuclei, the protons and neutrons (together nucleons) that make up the nuclei, and the quarks inside the nucleons.  Our goal is to help describe the theory of the strong nuclear force—the force that olds the nucleus/nucleons/quarks together—in the low-energy region.  Our work is done at an electron accelerator called MAMI (the Mainz Microtron) housed at the Institute for Nuclear Physics on the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany.  One of the projects we are currently working on is measuring the scalar and vector polarizabilities of the proton and neutron using Compton scattering experiments.  These quantities are fundamental constants like mass

and charge, but are related to the internal structure of the particle in question.