Determination of strange form factors of nucleon by parity violation asymmetry by polarized electron-proton elastic scattering

In the quark model, the proton is described as a system of three quarks UUD. However, recent experiments (CERN, SLAC) have shown that the strange quarks may contribute in a significant way to the mass and the spin of the proton. The HAPPEX experiment gives one further knowledge about the question of the role the strange quarks play inside the proton. It measures parity violating asymmetry in the scattering of polarized electrons from a proton because the latter is sensitive to the contribution of the strange quarks to the electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon. The observed asymmetry is in the order of a few ppm (part per million). The main difficulty of the experiment is to identify, to estimate and to minimize, as much as possible, all the systematic effects which could give rise to false asymmetries. This thesis discusses the principle of the HAPPEX experiment, its implementation at the Jefferson Lab (JLab), the processing and the analysis of the data, the systematic errors, and finally presents the result of the first data taking (1999) and its present interpretation. The HAPPEX experiment has measured, at Q2 = 0.5 (GeV/c)2, a strange quarks contribution of (1.0 ± 2.3)% to the electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon. The statistics and the systematic effects (measure of the electron beam polarization and knowledge of the neutron electric form factor) contribute equally to the error. (author)