Measuring in-medium nucleon modification through spectator tagged Deep Inelastic Scattering with the LAD experiment

The modification of bound nucleon quark structure, known as the EMC Effect, was discovered over 35 years ago through ratios of Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS) from Deuterium to other nuclei. However, the origin of the effect remains unknown. One leading hypothesis states that the effect is predominantly caused by the modification of high-virtuality nucleons in Short Range Correlated Pairs (SRCs), while the remaining (mean-field) nucleons are largely unmodified.

The LAD experiment in Hall C of Jefferson lab will test this hypothesis with spectator-tagged DIS. A large acceptance detector (LAD), consisting of a silicon tracker, GEMs, and scintillator bars, will compliment Hall C’s two existing forward-angle spectrometers. LAD will tag backward spectator protons, providing information about the initial state of the deuteron, in addition to the quark structure.

The status of the LAD experiment and its relation to other experimental and theoretical developments will be discussed.