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Qweak Experiment Collaboration Meeting

23 July 2008

In about one year, the Qweak experiment will be mounted at Jefferson Laboratory. To ensure preparations are on track and running smoothly, the Qweak Collaboration will hold a Collaboration Meeting at TRIUMF on July 28-30, 2008. This meeting will discuss progress on the instrumentation being constructed to perform this experiment.

About the Qweak Experiment: The Qweak experiment will challenge the predictions of the Standard Model, which is a theory describing interactions between elementary particles that compose matter in our universe. The Standard Model is restrictive and the Qweak scientists are looking for evidence that it is embedded in a more composite model. To do this, they will perform tests to try to find small deviations from predictions given by the Standard Model.

Specifically, Qweak will measure parity-violating electron scattering with very high precision. It will make precision measurements of the proton’s weak charge. If there are specific deviations found from predictions made by the Standard Model, it means there is possibly a new area of physics to be discovered – for example, there could be a new heavy particle not included in the Standard Model. The project is located at Jefferson Lab due to their current expertise in parity violation and their high-quality electron beams.

The Qweak experiment is a collaboration of 26 institutions from the USA, Canada, Mexico, and Armenia.

For more information, please visit the Qweak website.

By Nicole Dublanko
TRIUMF's Communications Assistant
Photo: Miroslav Kostic/stock.xchng