Andrew J. R. Puckett, Associate Professor, Department of Physics
The photo above shows members of the group on the BigBite Spectrometer service platform in Hall A of Jefferson Lab during the SBS installation in July 2021. From left to right: Prof. Puckett, Dr. Eric Fuchey, Graduate Research Assistants Sebastian Seeds and Provakar Datta. Professor Puckett is an experimental nuclear/particle physicist studying the internal structure of strongly interacting matter in high-energy fixed-target electron-nucleon and electron-nucleus scattering experiments at Jefferson Lab (JLab). The recently completed 12 GeV upgrade of JLab's Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility to a maximum beam energy of 11 GeV (12 GeV) for electron-beam (photon-beam) experiments, augmented by state-of-the-art target and detector systems, together with high-speed data acquisition and high-performance computing, has enabled a world-leading physics program leading to three-dimensional imaging of the internal quark structure of protons, neutrons and nuclei with unprecedented precision in both coordinate and momentum space. The ultimate goal of the experiments is to understand how strongly interacting matter is built from its elementary quark and gluon constituents in terms of Quantum Chromodynamics, the generally accepted theory of the strong interaction within the Standard Model. Click the image to see the list of publications and citations (according to Google Scholar).
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Recent news/events
Sebastian Seeds Thesis Defense (July 19)
Sebastian successfully defended his thesis titled “The Two-Photon-Exchange Contribution to Electron-Neutron Elastic Scattering and Extraction of GMn at Q2 = 4.5 GeV2 in Hall A at Jefferson Lab” on Friday, July 19, 2024. After completing his Ph.D., Sebastian will start a new position as Staff Scientist 2 at Los Alamos National Laboratory, in the Intelligence […]
[Read More]JLab PAC52 approves new two-day experiment using SBS
Professor Puckett traveled to Jefferson Lab in July 2024 to defend an experiment proposal developed with Professors Jan Bernauer of Stony Brook University and Axel Schmidt of George Washington University at the 52nd meeting of Jefferson Lab’s Program Advisory Committee (PAC52). PAC52 approved the proposal with an “A-” scientific rating. The proposal was to add […]
[Read More]Invited talk at Hall A/C Summer Workshop
Professor Puckett gave an invited talk on the status of the ongoing data analyses from the completed SBS neutron form factor experiments at the joint Hall A/C summer workshop on July 15. The meeting agenda can be found here. Professor Puckett’s slides can be found here.
[Read More]Physics Department Upcoming Events
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Nov
15
Graduate Student Seminar 12:15pm
Graduate Student Seminar
Friday, November 15th, 2024
12:15 PM - 01:15 PM
Gant South Building
Prof. Andrew Puckett, Department of Physics, University of Connecticut
Precision studies of proton and neutron structure via medium-energy electron scattering
Electron scattering has been one of the most important tools for precisely probing the femtoscopic structure of strongly interacting matter ever since Hofstadter’s pioneering measurements of electron-proton scattering and electron-nucleus scattering at Stanford in the 1950s revealed the non-point-like nature of the proton and provided a first direct measurement of the proton’s size, leading to the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1961. The Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at Jefferson Lab (JLab) in Newport News, Virginia, is the world’s leading facility for the precision three-dimensional imaging of the nucleon’s quark-gluon structure in both coordinate and momentum space. CEBAF uses superconducting radio-frequency acceleration technology to deliver electron beams of unparalleled quality in terms of energy, intensity, duty-cycle, and polarization. Experimentalists use these high-quality electron beams together with state-of-the-art target and detector technologies and high-performance data acquisition and computing capabilities to map the internal structure of strongly interacting matter with unprecedented precision and kinematic reach. In this talk, I will give a brief overview of the physics of electron scattering and its utility as a precision probe of nuclear structure, followed by a detailed overview of UConn’s role and Ph.D. research opportunities at JLab with the Puckett group.
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Nov
15
Astronomy Seminar 2:00pm
Astronomy Seminar
Friday, November 15th, 2024
02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Gant South Building
Madisyn Brooks, UConn
Title and abstract TBA
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Nov
15
26th Annual Katzenstein Distinguished Lecture 4:00pm
26th Annual Katzenstein Distinguished Lecture
Friday, November 15th, 2024
04:00 PM
Gant West Building
Adam Riess- Bloomberg Distinguished Professor and 2011 co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, Johns Hopkins University
In 1929 Edwin Hubble discovered that our Universe is expanding. Eighty years later, the Space Telescope that bears his name is being used to study an even more surprising phenomenon: that the expansion is speeding up. The origin of this effect is not known, but is broadly attributed to a type of “dark energy” first posited to exist by Albert Einstein and now dominating the mass-energy budget of the Universe. Professor Riess will describe how his team discovered the acceleration of the Universe and why understanding the nature of dark energy presents one of the greatest remaining challenges in astrophysics and cosmology. He will also discuss recent evidence that the Universe continues to defy our best efforts to predict its behavior.Adam Riess is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, the Thomas J. Barber Professor in Space Studies at the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, a distinguished astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
He received his bachelor’s degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992 and his PhD from Harvard University in 1996. His research involves measurements of the cosmological framework with supernovae (exploding stars) and Cepheids (pulsating stars). Currently, he leads the SHOES Team in efforts to improve the measurement of the Hubble Constant and the Higher-z Team to find and measure the most distant type Ia supernovae known to probe the origin of cosmic acceleration.
In 2011, he was named a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics and was awarded the Albert Einstein Medal for his leadership in the High-z Supernova Search Team’s discovery that the expansion rate of the universe is accelerating, a phenomenon widely attributed to a mysterious, unexplained “dark energy” filling the universe. The discovery was named by Science magazine in 1998 as “the Breakthrough Discovery of the Year.”
His accomplishments have been recognized with a number of other awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 2008, the Gruber Foundation Cosmology Prize in 2007 (shared), and the Shaw Prize in Astronomy in 2006.Reception at 3:00pm in the Gant Science Light Court
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Nov
22
UConn Physics Colloquium 3:30pm
UConn Physics Colloquium
Friday, November 22nd, 2024
03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Gant West Building
Prof. Lina Necib, Department of Physics, MIT
Mapping out the Dark Matter in the Milky Way
In this talk, I will explore the interfacing of simulations, observations, and machine learning techniques to construct a detailed map of Dark Matter in the Milky Way, focusing on the Galactic Center/Halo and dwarf galaxies. For the Galactic Halo, I will present a recent work that reveals a decline in the stellar circular velocity, inducing tensions with established estimates of the Milky Way’s mass and Dark Matter content. I will discuss how the underestimated systematic errors in such a common methodology necessitates a revised approach that combines theory, observations, and machine learning. In dwarf galaxies, I will present a novel Graph Neural Network methodology that facilitates the accurate extraction of Dark Matter density profiles, validated against realistic simulations. I will conclude with a discussion on the future trajectory of astroparticle physics, emphasizing the need for the integration of astrophysical probes with experimental Dark Matter research, potentially leading to a better understanding of the nature of Dark Matter.
Contact Information
Phone: | (860) 486-7137 (Office) |
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E-mail: | andrew.puckett@uconn.edu |
Address: | 196 Auditorium Road, Unit 3046 Storrs, CT 06269-3046 |
More: | https://physics.uconn.edu/person/andrew-puckett/ |