First Measurements of Inclusive Electron Scattering off Protons with CLAS12

The first physics run with the new CLAS12 spectrometer in Hall B at Jefferson Laboratory has recently been completed. The data was taken with a 10.6-GeV longitudinally polarized electron beam on an unpolarized liquid-hydrogen target. The phase space covered by CLAS12 spans a wide kinematic range in W up to 4 GeV and Q² up to 10-12 GeV². These data offer new opportunities in the exploration of inclusive, semi-inclusive, and fully exclusive reactions covering a host of different physics topics. I will present initial results for one of the initial studies with the first CLAS12 data set aimed at the measurements of the inclusive electroproduction cross sections. I will also report measurements of the elastic electron-scattering cross section at a beam energy of 2.2 GeV. Comparison of the inclusive and elastic cross sections from CLAS12 with the available world data is essential for the understanding and validation of the CLAS12 performance. The inclusive electron-scattering cross sections from this study will provide the first data in the resonance region at high photon virtualities Q² > 5.0 GeV².