Kinematic Optimization of SHMS and HMS in Hydrogen Elastic Reactions for Deuteron Electro-Disintegration Studies at JLab

Deuteron electro-disintegration (D(e,e'p)n) is a nuclear reaction where an electron beam collides with a deuteron nucleus, ejecting the proton and causing the neutron to recoil. This experiment enables the validation and further understanding of various theoretical frameworks, such as Final State Interaction (FSI) and Plane Wave Impulse Approximation (PWIA). In order to study the D(e, e'p)n reaction at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab), the Super High Momentum Spectrometer (SHMS) and High Momentum Spectrometer (HMS) must be optimized to output accurate kinematic measurements. To do this, we use a similar, well-understood hydrogen elastic (H(e, e')p) reaction where the kinematics can be obtained by reconstruction and Monte Carlo simulation. Since most kinematics depend on several variables which may deviate from their calculated nominal values when the experiment was performed, correcting these underlying variables is most important. An effective way of determining offsets is by using a chi-squared optimization method via least squares. The method is able to calculate the optimal global parameter offsets to minimize the difference between Monte Carlo simulation and experiment, thereby minimizing the chi-squared value. This method enables us to find the optimal value of these offsets between various parameters with increased precision, calibrating the detectors to ensure accurate readouts from the SHMS and the HMS at JLab for future D(e, e'p)n reaction studies.