Abstract
More than 99.9% of visible matter in our universe is made of protons and neutrons, which form the atomic core of all known elements. Originally thought to be fundamental particles, protons were revealed to display a rich substructure in terms of constituents such as quarks and gluons. Key properties of the
proton, such as its mass and angular momentum, emerge in a non-trivial manner from the behaviour of these constituents, which can be examined at large accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN
in Geneva. In this inaugural lecture, I present a concise overview of our modern understanding of proton substructure, highlighting recent breakthroughs such as the discovery of proton constituents heavier than
the proton itself. I also discuss the implications of these investigations for a wide range of global experiments addressing open conundrums in particle, nuclear, and astroparticle physics, from the Large Hadron Collider to the Electron Ion Collider and neutrino telescopes.
proton, such as its mass and angular momentum, emerge in a non-trivial manner from the behaviour of these constituents, which can be examined at large accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN
in Geneva. In this inaugural lecture, I present a concise overview of our modern understanding of proton substructure, highlighting recent breakthroughs such as the discovery of proton constituents heavier than
the proton itself. I also discuss the implications of these investigations for a wide range of global experiments addressing open conundrums in particle, nuclear, and astroparticle physics, from the Large Hadron Collider to the Electron Ion Collider and neutrino telescopes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Publication status | Published - 31 May 2023 |