Novel measurement of the neutron magnetic form factor from A = 3 mirror nuclei

Santiesteban, S. N. (author), Mihovilovič, Miha (author), Širca, Simon (author)

The electromagnetic form factors of the proton and neutron encode information on the spatial structure of their charge and magnetization distributions. While measurements of the proton are relatively straightforward, the lack of a free neutron target makes measurements of the neutron’s electromagnetic structure more challenging and more sensitive to experimental or model-dependent uncertainties. Various experiments have attempted to extract the neutron form factors from scattering from the neutron in deuterium, with different techniques providing different, and sometimes large, systematic uncertainties. We present results from a novel measurement of the neutron magnetic form factor using quasielastic scattering from the mirror nuclei $^3$H and $^3$He, where the nuclear effects are larger than for deuterium but expected to largely cancel in the cross-section ratios. We extracted values of the neutron magnetic form factor for low-to-modest momentum transfer, $0.6 < Q^2 < 2.9$ GeV$^2$, where existing measurements give inconsistent results. The precision and $Q^2$ range of these data allow for a better understanding of the current world’s data and suggest a path toward further improvement of our overall understanding of the neutron’s magnetic form factor.

• Language: English
• Keywords: experimental nuclear physics
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FMF - Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 162501-1-162501-7
• Numbering: Vol. 132, iss. 16
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-167871
• UDC: 539.1
• ISSN on article: 0031-9007
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.162501
• COBISS.SI-ID: 229356035
• Publication date in RUL: 18.03.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Physical review letters
• Shortened title: Phys. rev. lett.
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• ISSN: 0031-9007
• COBISS.SI-ID: 1282575

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: eksperimentalna jedrska fizika