Picturing the Proton
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Two theoretical physicists in the College of Liberal Art and Sciences and their colleagues are eager for the results of an experiment scheduled next fall at the new Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland.
If the experiment confirms their work, it could change the way scientists think about protons, the positively charged particles that, along with neutrons, make up the nucleus of an atom.
Munir Islam, professor emeritus and research professor of physics, and Richard Luddy, research professor in the physics department who received his Ph.D. here in 2006, and two European colleagues have reported a model of the structure of the proton.
The structure of the proton is not yet known. If their model is confirmed by the LHC experiment, it will be a major step forward in our understanding of the proton, the physicists say.
How small is the proton they are studying? So small that it will be “seen” not visually, but virtually, the scientists explain. Its size is described by 14 zeros followed by one to the right of a decimal point, “a millionth of a billionth” of a meter.
The LHC went online in November 2009 after an interrupted start-up in 2008. Just this week, it “smashed” its first protons, or achieved its first proton-proton collisions.
The experiments in Switzerland bring together protons, among the tiniest of particles, and the LHC, the world’s largest scientific instrument and highest energy particle collider. The LHC is located at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, near Geneva.
The proton model that Islam has worked on for more than 30 years shows a proton with three layers. Confined in its core are three quarks, or point-like subatomic particles, surrounded by two rings of “clouds.” The ring closest to the core has what the physicists describe as an exotic charge, a “baryonic charge.” The outer cloud ring is composed of quarks and anti-quarks in a condensed state.
If the experiment confirms their work, it could change the way scientists think about protons, the positively charged particles that, along with neutrons, make up the nucleus of an atom.
Munir Islam, professor emeritus and research professor of physics, and Richard Luddy, research professor in the physics department who received his Ph.D. here in 2006, and two European colleagues have reported a model of the structure of the proton.
The structure of the proton is not yet known. If their model is confirmed by the LHC experiment, it will be a major step forward in our understanding of the proton, the physicists say.
How small is the proton they are studying? So small that it will be “seen” not visually, but virtually, the scientists explain. Its size is described by 14 zeros followed by one to the right of a decimal point, “a millionth of a billionth” of a meter.
The LHC went online in November 2009 after an interrupted start-up in 2008. Just this week, it “smashed” its first protons, or achieved its first proton-proton collisions.
The experiments in Switzerland bring together protons, among the tiniest of particles, and the LHC, the world’s largest scientific instrument and highest energy particle collider. The LHC is located at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, near Geneva.
The proton model that Islam has worked on for more than 30 years shows a proton with three layers. Confined in its core are three quarks, or point-like subatomic particles, surrounded by two rings of “clouds.” The ring closest to the core has what the physicists describe as an exotic charge, a “baryonic charge.” The outer cloud ring is composed of quarks and anti-quarks in a condensed state.
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If there are positive results for the above proton model, it could lend credence the to following possible alternate Hypothesis: That positive-going Quark packets are pulled into Inverse space and held there, under a blanket of an evenly charged Quark zone (a kind of zero space DMZ). Causing inflation of universe.
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