The Secret Life Of Quarks ▸ KITP Chalk Talk by Will Detmold

Quarks and gluons are the fundamental building blocks of protons and neutrons, and, hence, of almost all of the visible universe, however these particles are never seen directly in experiments! In this talk, Prof. Detmold will give us a glimpse at the hidden world of quarks and gluons through the lens of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) — the modern theory of the strong interaction. He will discuss how our growing understanding of their dynamics has far reaching impact on nuclear physics, on searches for physics beyond the Standard Model, and even on the question of why we are here at all. QCD forces are extremely counterintuitive, becoming enormously strong as quarks and gluons try to pull apart. Consequently, even after many years of concerted study, exactly how protons, neutrons and nuclei emerge from the underlying quark and gluon interactions has remained a mystery. Recently, state-of-the-art supercomputer calculations have have begun to lay bare the quantitative answers to these questions. Prof. Detmold will discuss these calculations, their role in understanding protons, neutrons and their more exotic cousins, and, finally, he’ll show how they are beginning to be used to address deep questions about the primordial formation of the elements and the subsequent evolution of the cosmos.

Prof. Detmold obtained his PhD from the University of Adelaide in Australia, and joined the MIT physics faculty in 2012, after positions at the University of Washington and the College of William and Mary. His research interests are in strong interaction dynamics in theoretical particle and nuclear physics and in high- performance computing.

Friends of KITP Chalk Talk Series
August 31, 2016

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