“Strange mesons” don’t get their name because they are more unusual or bizarre than any other meson, but rather because they contain a strange quark. Justin Stevens explains that “strange” is one of ...

The wiggly lines of Feynman diagrams illustrate the QCD processes between quarks and gluons that take place inside particles such as protons. A new generation of supercomputers begins to provide ...

The Simons Foundation has announced a new research collaboration to explore the “glue” that holds the visible matter of the universe together. This team of thirteen principal investigators, led by ...

An elusive particle that first formed in the hot, dense maelstrom of the early universe has puzzled physicists for decades. Following its surprise discovery in 2003, scientists began observing a slew ...

Physicists in Germany and Hungary claim that ultracold atoms in an optical lattice could be used to simulate certain aspects of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) -- the theory that describes how quarks are ...

The protons and neutrons of atomic nuclei are themselves constructed of quarks held together by gluons. That quark-gluon relationship is governed by the strong interaction, one of the four elemental ...

Quarks and antiquarks are the teeny, tiny building blocks with which all matter is built, binding together to form protons and neutrons in a process explained by quantum chromodynamics (QCD).

Polarized proton containing spinning quarks and gluons (represented by right-handed and left-handed spirals). The negative Δg solutions (blue) are disfavored relative to the positive Δg solutions (red ...

Pentaquarks do not fit into the traditional quark model of hadrons, but understanding these exotic new particles is offering fresh insights into the subtleties of the strong interaction Five quarks In ...

Much like two friendly neighbors getting together to chat over a cup of coffee, the minuscule particles in our sub-atomic world also come together to engage in a kind of conversation. Now, nuclear ...

Holographic QCD employs ideas drawn from string theory and the AdS/CFT correspondence to study the strong coupling regime of quantum chromodynamics, offering a dual gravitational description of quark ...

Objects are made of atoms, and atoms are likewise the sum of their parts—electrons, protons, and neutrons. Dive into one of those protons or neutrons, however, and things get weird. Three particles ...