tagged w/ Quarks
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worrg
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2 years ago
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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.Two theoretical physicists in the College of Liberal Art and Sciences and their... more
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2 years ago
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This amazing video takes us on a fantastic journey from the outer universe down to the earth, then into a leaf and on into submolecular structures, like atoms, for a look at quarks that make up atoms.This amazing video takes us on a fantastic journey from the outer universe down to the... more
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In one single, epic camera move we journey from Earth's surface to the outermost reaches of the universe on a grand tour of the cosmos, to explore newborn stars, distant planets, black holes and beyond.In one single, epic camera move we journey from Earth's surface to the outermost... more
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Matter is built on flaky foundations. Physicists have now confirmed that the apparently substantial stuff is actually no more than fluctuations in the quantum vacuum.
The researchers simulated the frantic activity that goes on inside protons and neutrons. These particles provide almost all the mass of ordinary matter.
Each proton (or neutron) is made of three quarks - but the individual masses of these quarks only add up to about 1% of the proton's mass. So what accounts for the rest of it?
Theory says it is created by the force that binds quarks together, called the strong nuclear force. In quantum terms, the strong force is carried by a field of virtual particles called gluons, randomly popping into existence and disappearing again. The energy of these vacuum fluctuations has to be included in the total mass of the proton and neutron.
But it has taken decades to work out the actual numbers. The strong force is described by the equations of quantum chromodynamics, or QCD, which are too difficult to solve in most cases.
So physicists have developed a method called lattice QCD, which models smooth space and time as a grid of separate points. This pixellated approach allows the complexities of the strong force to be simulated approximately by computer.Matter is built on flaky foundations. Physicists have now confirmed that the... more
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bshipp
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3 years ago
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