Coherent Deuteron DVCS Analysis to Extract a Beam Spin Asymmetry (A_LU)

Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs) offer insight into the internal structure of nucleons, specifically giving an in-depth look into their individual constituents namely quarks and gluons. Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering, is one of the primary ways to access these GPDs. Due to the complex nature of the spin-1 Deuteron, there are theorized to be nine GPDs. To further learn about these GPDs we are studying coherent DVCS on the deuteron (e D → e’ D’ ??) to extract a Beam Spin Asymmetry (BSA) using Pass-1 data from Jefferson Lab’s Run Group B. This run featured a longitudinally polarized beam on an unpolarized deuteron target. In this poster we will present our preliminary analysis to select events with an electron, deuteron, and photon in the final state and the selection process to identify DVCS events via strict kinematic cuts. Additionally, we will present a novel way to verify and identify deuterons using machine learning. Finally, we will show a preliminary BSA for coherent DVCS, which is the first of its kind, giving insight into the GPDs of the deuteron.

This research is funded by NSF Grant #1812151 Study of the Nucleon Structure Using Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering At Jefferson Lab