Duke Physics

Haiyan Gao, Professor and Chair  

Office Location: 2313 FFSC
Office Phone: (919) 660-2622, (919) 660-2505
Email Address: gao@phy.duke.edu
Web Page: http://www.tunl.duke.edu/~mep

Specialties:
Experimental nuclear physics

Education:
Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, 1994
B.S., Tsinghua University, 1988

Current projects: Neutron EDM, Precision measurement of proton charge radius, Polarized Compton scattering, neutron and proton transversity, search for phi-N bound state, polarized photodisintegration of 3He

Research Description: Prof. Gao's research focuses on understanding the structure of the nucleon in terms of quark and gluon degrees of freedom of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), search for QCD exotics, and fundamental symmetry studies at low energy to search for new physics beyond the Standard Model of electroweak interactions. Most of her work utilizes the novel experimental technique of scattering polarized electrons or photons from polarized gas targets. Her group has built a number of state-of-the-art polarized gas targets including H/D internal gas target and a high-pressure polarized ³He target for photon experiments using the High Intensity Gamma Source (HIGS) facility at the Duke Free Electron Laser Laboratory (DFELL)(DFELL). Currently, her group and collaborators from Indiana University are also employing such a high-pressure, thin-window polarized 3He target in a new search for spin-dependent short-range forces. She and her group are also collaborating on a challenging experiment aiming at a major improvement over the current limit on the neutron electric dipole moment. Such an experiment will make important contributions to the understanding of CP violation and to the search of New Physics beyond the Standard Model. Her research is being carried out at Duke University, the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab), the HIGS facility at DFELL, and the Fundamental Neutron Beam Line at the Spallation Neutron Source at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Areas of Interest:
Nucleon structure (QCD Physics), Fundamental symmetry study, test of the Standard Model of Physics, development of polarized targets

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. H. Gao with J. Huang et al., Beam-Target Double Spin Asymmetry A_LT in Charged Pion Production from Deep Inelastic Scattering on a Transversely Polarized 3He Target at 1.4, Phys. Rev. Lett. (Accepted, 2011) .
2. W. Zheng, H. Gao and others, Search for Spin-Dependent Short-Range Force Using Optically Polarized 3He Gas, Phys. Rev. D (Submitted, 2011) .
3. W. Zheng, H. Gao and others, General solution to gradient-induced transverse and longitudinal relaxation of spins undergoing restricted diffusion, Phys. Rev. A, vol. 84 (2011), pp. 053411 .
4. D. Hasell, R.G. Milner, R.P. Redwine, R. Alarcon, H. Gao, M. Kohl, and J. Calarco, Spin-Dependent Electron Scattering from Polarized Protons and Deuterons with the BLAST Experiment at MIT-Bates, Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science, vol. 61 (2011), pp. 409-433 .
5. H. Gao with X. Qian et al., Single Spin Asymmetries in Charged Pion Production from Semi-Inclusive Deep Inelastic Scattering on a Transversely Polarized 3He Target, Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 107 (2011), pp. 072003 .