Title: The MOLLER Experiment: High Energy Physics at Low Energies
Abstract: Nature violates parity symmetry. Discovered almost 70 years ago, this phenomenon implies that the universe is “left handed.” Although we have a very successful theory, the Standard Model of Particle Physics, which agrees with scores of experimental tests, it includes parity violation in an ad hoc way. There are hints that the Standard Model should break down at very high energies, restoring parity symmetry. There are viable conjectures for how that might come about, and much of High Energy Physics tries to reach the energy scales where this breakdown might occur.
This talk describes a different approach, trading very high energy interactions for extremely precise measurements at lower energies. The MOLLER experiment at Jefferson Lab will measure parity violation in electron-electron scattering for which the Standard Model makes a precise prediction. Disagreement between experiment and theory at this level would indicate “new physics” at energies beyond the reach of current high energy collider facilities. After introducing the key concepts, I will describe the challenges of making this ultra precise measurement and the timeline for executing the experiment.