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First Measurement of Compton Scattering on ${}^{3}{He}$ at $HI γ S$

J. Zhou ^1,2,*, E. Mancil ^1,2, M. W. Ahmed ^3,2, B. Crowe ^3,2, G. Feldman⁴, F. Q. L. Friesen ^1,2, H. Gao ^1,2, D. Godagama ^1,4,2, H. W. Grießhammer ⁴ et al. (Compton@HIγS Collaboration)

H. W. Grießhammer ⁴, D. Hornidge ⁵, C. R. Howell ^1,2, S. Jia¹, S. Estupinan Jimenez ⁶, H. J. Karwowski ^7,2, M. A. Kovash ⁸, K. K. H. Leung ⁶, M. Lewis⁴, Y. Liu^1,2, D. Markoff ^3,2, C. Martin ^1,2, J. McPherson⁹, R. Mendez^1,2, S. F. Mikhailov ^1,2, D. R. Phillips ¹⁰, M. H. Sikora ^4,2, N. Walton^1,2, J. Wang^1,11, Y. K. Wu ^1,2, B. Yu ^1,2, and Z. W. Zhao ^1,2 (Compton@HIγS Collaboration)

¹Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA
²Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA
³Department of Mathematics and Physics, North Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina 27707, USA
⁴Institute for Nuclear Studies, Department of Physics, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA
⁵Department of Physics, Mount Allison University, 67 York Street, Sackville, New Brunswick E4L 1E6, Canada
⁶Department of Physics and Astronomy, Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey 07043, USA
⁷University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27516, USA
⁸Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506, USA
⁹Department of Chemistry and Physics, Longwood University, Farmville, Virginia 23909, USA
¹⁰Department of Physics and Astronomy and Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701, USA
¹¹Department of Physics, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg 20146, Germany

^*Contact author: jingyi.zhou@duke.edu

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 192502 – Published 5 November, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/gn45-7lpx

Abstract

The world’s first Compton scattering measurements on a ${}^{3}{He}$ target were performed to probe neutron electromagnetic polarizabilities. Differential cross sections were measured at laboratory angles of 40°, 55°, 90°, 115°, 150°, using circularly polarized, quasimonoenergetic photon beams at weighted mean energy values of 61.5 and 97.1 MeV from the High Intensity $γ$ -Ray Source at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory. Comparisons with chiral effective field theory show good agreement at 97.1 MeV but overprediction at 61.5 MeV, motivating further theoretical development.

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References (49)

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First Measurement of Compton Scattering on ${}^{3}{He}$ at $HI γ S$

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First Measurement of Compton Scattering on He3 at HIγS

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First Measurement of Compton Scattering on ${}^{3}{He}$ at $HI γ S$