Hosted by: Oleg Eyser

The electromagnetic form factors of the proton as measured by polarized and unpolarized electron scattering experiments differ by up to a factor of three at large momentum transfer. Calculations show that this discrepancy can be reconciled by treating the interaction in 2nd Born Approximation, i.e., including two photon exchange (TPE). While calculation of TPE effects is highly model dependent, these effects can be measured directly by comparing elastic electron-proton and positron-proton scattering. Three experiments, TPE at Jefferson Lab, VEPP-3 at Novosibirsk, and OLYMPUS at DESY, measured this. VEPP-3 and OLYMPUS used alternating monochromatic e+ and e- beams in storage rings; TPE created a tertiary mixed simultaneous e+/e- beam covering a wide range of energies. This talk will present the proton form factor problem, the experimental effort to measure the positron-electron ratio (with special emphasis on the Jefferson Lab experiment), and the results.