After all, science is essentially international, and it is only through lack of the historical sense that national qualities have been attributed to it.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie

Science makes people reach selflessly for truth and objectivity; it teaches people to accept reality, with wonder and admiration, not to mention the deep awe and joy that the natural order of things brings to the true scientist.
Lise Meitner

# Projects

#### Studying the proton spin structure with STAR

How the spin of a nucleon arises from the spins and orbital angular momenta of quarks and gluons? This fundamental question in hadron physics remains not completely answered. Experiments with polarized proton-proton collisions can bring us closer to the comprehensive understanding of the internal spin structure of matter.

#### Searching for EDMs of charged hadrons with JEDI

The origin of the matter-antimatter imbalance in the universe is one of the grand puzzles of modern physics. Searches for Electric Dipole Moments of charged hadrons within the JEDI collaboration can shed the light on the new sources on the CP-symmetry violation which could explain the observed preponderance of matter in our world.

#### Diffractive interaction of protons at CDF

Central exclusive production processes are characterized by large regions in forward rapidity devoid of hadrons, and a centrally produced state, in our case pairs of charged mesons. This class of reactions measured at TeV energies has an important role in meson spectroscopy, favoring states having valence gluons, such as glueballs.

#### Probing symmetry between u and d quarks with WASA

The fact that up and down quarks have slightly different masses has quite some impact on our existence, resulting in proton being heavier then neutron, and therefore stable. Net effects of quark-mass differences can be studied in hadronic reactions, e.g., in the reaction measured with the WASA-at-COSY experiment.

# Experience

July 2018 – Present
Berkeley, USA

#### Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Collaboration: STAR

• Contributing to the proton-spin-structure program with longitudinally polarized proton-proton collisions
January 2017 – July 2018
Jülich, Germany

#### Research Center Jülich

Collaboration: JEDI

• Investigated polarized deuteron-carbon scattering with the WASA detector.
• Obtained database of spin observables for a dedicated polarimeter for the search for electric dipole moments of charged particles at a storage ring (srEDM).
October 2013 – November 2016
Jülich, Germany

#### Research Center Jülich

Collaboration: WASA-at-COSY

• Prepared and coordinated dedicated beamtime for the charge symmetry breaking reaction $dd\rightarrow{^4\text{He}}\pi^0$ measurement.
• Developed calibration method for time-of-flight and energy losses from plastic scintillators in WASA.
• Measured for the first time the differential cross-section and quantitatively interpreted obtained results by means of partial wave analysis.
October 2011 – July 2013
Cracow, Poland

#### Jagiellonian University

Collaboration: WASA-at-COSY

• Designed modification of the WASA detector setup for optimal measurement of the the $dd\rightarrow{^4\text{He}}\pi^0$.
• Granted ten-week-long dedicated beamtime by the COSY Program Advisory Committee.
July 2010 – May 2015
Batavia, USA

#### Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

Collaboration: CDF

• Analyzed dedicated low-luminosity dataset with the CDF experiment.
• Observed central exclusive $\pi^+\pi^-$ production for the first time at excess energy of 1.96 and 0.9 TeV.

# Recent Publications

(2018). Backward single-pion production in the $pd\rightarrow {}^3\textrm{He}\,\pi^0$ reaction with WASA-at-COSY. In: The European Physical Journal A 54.

(2018). Charge Symmetry Breaking in the reaction $dd \rightarrow {}^4\mathrm{He} \pi^0$ with WASA-at-COSY. In: PoS PoS(Hadron2017)157.

(2018). Phase Measurement for Driven Spin Oscillations in a Storage Ring. In: Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 21.

(2018). Spin Dependence of $\eta$ Meson Production in Proton-Proton Collisions Close to Threshold. In: Phys. Rev. Lett. 120.

# Selected Publications

(2018). An Isotensor Dibaryon in the $pp \to pp\pi^+\pi^-$ Reaction?. In: Phys. Rev. Lett. 121.

(2018). Connection between zero chromaticity and long in-plane polarization lifetime in a magnetic storage ring. In: Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 21.

(2018). Importance of $d$-wave contributions in the charge symmetry breaking reaction $dd \to {}^4\text{He}\pi^0$. In: Phys. Lett. B781.

(2017). Phase locking the spin precession in a storage ring. In: Phys. Rev. Lett. 119.

(2014). Charge symmetry breaking in $dd \rightarrow {}^4\text{He} \pi^0$ with WASA-at-COSY. In: Phys. Lett. B739.

(2014). Evidence for a New Resonance from Polarized Neutron-Proton Scattering. In: Phys. Rev. Lett. 112.

(2013). Investigation of the $dd \to$ $^{3}\text{He} n\pi^0$ reaction with the FZ Jülich WASA-at-COSY facility. In: Phys. Rev. C88.

(2013). Search for a dark photon in the $\pi^0 \to e^+e^-\gamma$ decay. In: Phys. Lett. B726.

# Contact

• mariakzurek@lbl.gov
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Nuclear Science Division, 1 Cyclotron Road M/S 70R0319, Berkeley, CA 94720