The framework of chiral perturbation theory (ChPT) sets an excellent basis for the description of low-energy electroweak processes involving hadrons in general. After a brief introduction to this theory, I will discuss some applications we have worked on, namely the processes of photon- and neutrino-induced pion production close to threshold, and the predictive power therein. Furthermore, I will show that ChPT can be of use also in other physics fields, with the example of setting constraints on CP-violating decay rates by connection to the neutron EDM calculation.
In the past decade, renewed interest in the nucleon electromagnetic form factors was sparked by new measurements of electron-proton scattering at low Q^2 by the A1 Collaboration and of the proton charge radius in muonic hydrogen by the CREMA Collaboration. Subsequent theoretical developments re-examined longstanding assumptions on the parameterizations of these form factors. In this talk, I will review some of these developments, then present new parameterizations of the form factors that are the result of work in the past few years. Finally, I will outline applications of these form factors in both atomic physics and for the US program of precision neutrino measurements.
In 2017, the COHERENT collaboration made the first observation of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS) using a 14.6 kg CsI scintillating crystal detector located at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In addition to neutrons, the 1.4 MW pulsed (60 Hz) proton beam at the SNS produces charged pions which subsequently decay to yield a large neutrino flux with a well known energy spectrum and time structure. COHERENT employs a suite of detectors at the SNS to search for CEvNS in different target nuclei and to measure potential backgrounds. This multi-target program allows for testing of Standard Model predictions for CEvNS as well as for verifying the $N^2$-dependence of the cross section of this interaction. CENNS-10, a 24 kg liquid argon scintillation detector, has been actively taking data at the SNS since the spring of 2017. This talk will detail the methods and results of a search for and detection of CEvNS in CENNS-10 data.
