A new study reveals the 3D structure of nuclear resonans. In the middle of the 20th century, scientists found that protons are capable of resonating like fluctuations in the bell. Despite the significant achievements in the next 30 years, which allowed the three-dimensional images of the proton, still little is known about the 3D structure of the resonating proton.
A recent experiment conducted in Thomas Jefferson of the US National Accelerator Laboratory, more deeply investigated the three-dimensional structures of the Proton and Neutron resonance. These data complement the overall picture of the chaotic early universe immediately after the big explosion.
The study of the basic properties and behavior of nucleons (protons and neutrons that make up the nucleus of atoms) provides key information about the basic building blocks of matter. When the nucleon is excited in a state of high energy, its quarks rotate and hesitate against each other, which is called nucleon resonance.
A group of physicists from the University of Liebig in Gissen, Germany, and the University of Connecticut led the experiment. The results were published in the authoritative journal Physical Review Letters. Stefan Dil, a leading analyst, emphasized that this experiment opens a new direction of research.
Dil also discussed how matter began to form in the early Universe: “In the beginning, there was only a plasma composition of quarks and gluons. Then the excited states of nucle began to form. With the expansion of the universe, it was cooled, and nucleons were manifested in the main state.”
These studies will help to learn more about the characteristics of these resonances and understand how matter was formed in the Universe and why the Universe exists in its current form.
The study was conducted with the financial support of the US Energy Department.