{"id":15163,"date":"2021-10-22T08:45:05","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T07:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=15163"},"modified":"2022-03-02T10:52:19","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T10:52:19","slug":"the-gluex-experiment-investigating-the-gluonic-excitations-of-mesons-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/the-gluex-experiment-investigating-the-gluonic-excitations-of-mesons-2\/15163\/","title":{"rendered":"The GlueX Experiment: Investigating the gluonic excitations of mesons"},"content":{"rendered":"
Over the last fifteen years, our understanding of the structure of building blocks of matter in our universe, protons and neutrons, has made significant strides forward. We now understand that properties of these building blocks are not just dependent on the three quarks we typically associate with them, but also the strong force, described by quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and by the gluons of QCD. In particular, these gluons account for much of a proton and neutron\u2019s mass, as well as part of their spins. The GlueX Experiment<\/a> [1] has been built to comprehend the role these gluons play in quark matter.<\/p>\n As measurements of the hydrogen atom and its spectrum led to the development of quantum mechanics over a century ago, the studies of the analogous QCD systems can help elucidate the role glue plays in matter. In particular, the excited spectrum of quark-antiquark pairs, known as mesons, can play this role. Theoretically, it is possible to solve QCD on supercomputers using a technique known as lattice QCD, and substantial work has been carried out to understand the spectrum of mesons [2\u20134]. These calculations both reproduce the experimentally known spectrum as well as predict a new type of meson where the gluonic field plays a significant role in the mesons\u2019 properties (hybrid mesons). These states can be viewed as ones where the gluonic field binds the quark, and the antiquark rotates itself (Fig. 1). In addition, some of these hybrids are predicted to have properties not allowed for in normal quark-antiquark states; the exotic hybrid mesons. Lattice QCD calculations have now advanced to the point that the calculation of the decays of the lightest exotic hybrid is now possible [5].<\/p>\nGluonic excitations<\/h3>\n