{"id":18867,"date":"2022-02-25T08:44:28","date_gmt":"2022-02-25T08:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=18867"},"modified":"2022-02-25T10:36:50","modified_gmt":"2022-02-25T10:36:50","slug":"the-electron-ion-collider-a-precision-tool-for-studying-the-glue-that-binds-visible-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/the-electron-ion-collider-a-precision-tool-for-studying-the-glue-that-binds-visible-matter\/18867\/","title":{"rendered":"The Electron-Ion Collider: A precision tool for studying the \u2018glue\u2019 that binds visible matter"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC)<\/a>, planned to be built at the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL)<\/a>, in partnership with Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab)<\/a>, will be the most advanced tool for studying some of the deepest unexplored recesses of the atom. It will peer into protons and neutrons, the building blocks that make up atomic nuclei, providing unprecedented insight into how those particles\u2019 internal building blocks\u2014and the gluelike force that holds them together \u2013 build up the structure of nearly all visible matter in the Universe.<\/p>\n We know that a proton is made up of quarks and a sea of gluons (see box). Those gluons also keep producing quarks and anti-quark pairs (called sea-quarks). So, the internal microcosm of a proton is abundantly full. One could assume that this abundance of particles would explain where protons get their mass, but quarks are nearly massless, and gluons have no<\/em> mass. If we add up the masses of the quarks that make up the proton, they account for only about 1% of the proton\u2019s total mass.<\/p>\n Where is the remaining 99%? Astonishingly, it appears to come from the interaction energy among the proton\u2019s inner building blocks. In fact, it looks like the nucleons, nuclei and, by extension, all the planets and galaxies of the visible Universe get their mass through interactions of massless gluons and almost massless quarks. How does this happen? The Electron-Ion Collider will resolve this profound and longstanding mystery.<\/p>\n Since the 1960s, physicists have known that protons and neutrons, referred to collectively as nucleons, are made up of fundamental particles called quarks, bound together by a force resulting from the exchange of gluons. We call this the \u2018strong force\u2019. The strong force depends on the existence of a different type of charge, called the \u2018color charge\u2019. Unlike \u2018electric charge\u2019, which comes in two varieties (positive and negative), the strong force seems to have three types called \u2018colors\u2019 (red, blue, and green).<\/p>\n Another important difference is that, unlike the photons that mediate the electromagnetic force, the gluons that mediate the strong force can and do interact with one another. That is one of the characteristics that makes the strong force so strong. In fact, it makes it impossible to find a free quark in nature. Instead, quarks are always confined within composite particles such as protons. Within the protons, however, the quarks are essentially free to move around.<\/p>\n Despite more than six decades of exploration, our knowledge and understanding of this apparent discrepancy between quark confinement and asymptotic freedom within protons, as well as the gluons\u2019 role in strong force interactions, are surprisingly insufficient compared with our understanding of electromagnetism\u2014the force at the heart of today\u2019s electronic technologies. Can we do better? Yes, but for that we need to pin down the gluon and understand its gluelike behaviour much more precisely. For that, we need the EIC. What we learn may unlock the secrets of the strongest force in nature and potentially new ways to apply that knowledge.<\/p>\nElectron-Ion Collider Science: Origin of mass<\/h3>\n