Physicists map the incredibly powerful forces inside a proton

The big picture: Scientists have spent decades trying to unravel the mysteries of the proton – the tiny particle at the heart of every atom. Despite their minuscule size, protons are incredibly complex, with dynamic internal structures that physicists are still striving to fully understand. Now, a team of researchers has taken a major step forward by producing the most detailed map yet of the forces at work inside them. To achieve this, a team from the University of Adelaide used a powerful computational technique known as lattice quantum chromodynamics. Directly observing the proton's constituent quarks and gluons is extremely challenging, so the researchers developed a novel approach that essentially "breaks down space and time into a fine grid," as one team member described it. This virtual grid allowed them to apply highly complex equations to simulate the interactions between quarks inside the proton. After extensive computational work, the simulations produced an unprecedented ... Read full article.