Experimental Scheme for Polarizing the Boron Nuclei

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Milner, William R., Milner, Richard G.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Milner, William R.
Milner, Richard G.
author_facet Milner, William R.
Milner, Richard G.
contents Unravelling the internal structure of hadrons and nuclei in terms of the quarks and gluons of Quantum Chromodynamics is a central focus of current nuclear physics research. Directly observing gluonic states in the nucleus would be groundbreaking and is an objective of the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). Over thirty years ago, Jaffe and Manohar identified a new double-helicity flip structure function, directly sensitive to exotic gluons. They pointed out that this could be measured in inclusive high-energy electron scattering from a transversely polarized nuclear target with spin $I \ge 1$. Here, we identify the spin-3 nucleus boron-10 as a particularly interesting system to search for exotic gluons. Leveraging technical advances in atomic physics over the past decade, we outline an experimental scheme to directly optically pump a beam of stable boron atoms to polarize the nuclear spin. Technical challenges to realize a spin-polarized beam of boron-10 in the EIC are discussed. The proposed scheme will also polarize the $^{11}$B nucleus, which could significantly enhance the pB fusion cross section.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_06561
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Experimental Scheme for Polarizing the Boron Nuclei
Milner, William R.
Milner, Richard G.
Instrumentation and Detectors
Nuclear Experiment
Atomic Physics
Unravelling the internal structure of hadrons and nuclei in terms of the quarks and gluons of Quantum Chromodynamics is a central focus of current nuclear physics research. Directly observing gluonic states in the nucleus would be groundbreaking and is an objective of the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). Over thirty years ago, Jaffe and Manohar identified a new double-helicity flip structure function, directly sensitive to exotic gluons. They pointed out that this could be measured in inclusive high-energy electron scattering from a transversely polarized nuclear target with spin $I \ge 1$. Here, we identify the spin-3 nucleus boron-10 as a particularly interesting system to search for exotic gluons. Leveraging technical advances in atomic physics over the past decade, we outline an experimental scheme to directly optically pump a beam of stable boron atoms to polarize the nuclear spin. Technical challenges to realize a spin-polarized beam of boron-10 in the EIC are discussed. The proposed scheme will also polarize the $^{11}$B nucleus, which could significantly enhance the pB fusion cross section.
title Experimental Scheme for Polarizing the Boron Nuclei
topic Instrumentation and Detectors
Nuclear Experiment
Atomic Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.06561