New CERN measurement challenges conventional models of how gluons behave inside atomic nuclei
A University of Kansas physicist played a leading role in a CERN study showing that two rival explanations for how gluons behave inside atomic nuclei can now be experimentally distinguished.
A new CERN measurement has challenged existing models of gluon behavior within atomic nuclei, potentially reshaping our understanding of matter's mass and structure. Led by a University of Kansas physicist, the research provides a clearer view of gluons, the particles that bind quarks together, at high energies. The study, published in Physical Review Letters, reports the first multidimensional measurement of incoherent J/ψ photonuclear production as a function of interaction energy and momentum transfer.
This technique, used during the Large Hadron Collider's Run 2, allowed the team to probe structures smaller than a proton, revealing evidence that gluons begin to behave collectively at very small scales, a phenomenon known as gluon saturation. This finding contradicts a previous explanation called nuclear shadowing, which posits that gluons partially overlap and obscure each other, reducing particle production rates.
The new measurements are consistent with gluon saturation, a theory predicted by quantum chromodynamics, the framework describing the strong force.
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