CAREER: Hadron's Transverse Structure and Associated QCD Dynamics

核子（质子和中子）是物质的基石，也是已知的夸克和胶子的束缚态——这两种基本粒子产生了可见宇宙中的大部分质量。量子色动力学（QCD）是强相互作用（四种基本力之一）的微观理论，它描述了夸克和胶子如何相互作用。QCD的基本法则非常简洁；然而，从夸克和胶子的角度来理解质子和中子的结构复杂性是当今物理学面临的最重要的挑战之一，这一挑战激励着最新一代的实验设备、超级计算机和核科学家。该项目的目标是对重要的QCD散射过程进行新的理论分析和计算，开发现象学工具，可用于从现有和未来的实验测量中可靠地提取核子的夸克和胶子结构，从而解决与强子结构和相关QCD动力学相关的悬而未决的问题。例如，该项目将能够解决的基本问题包括：核子内部夸克和胶子的受限运动起什么作用？夸克和胶子的运动，它们的自旋和核子的自旋之间是否存在量子相关性？高能散射产生的夸克和胶子是如何转变成强子的？从强子的准直喷射（所谓的喷射）的产生中可以获得什么新的见解？该项目还将为未来的电子离子对撞机提供急需的指导和预测，电子离子对撞机是核物理学界计划的旗舰核实验设施。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Nucleons (protons and neutrons) are the building blocks of matter, and also known to be the bound states of quarks and gluons - the elementary particles that give rise to most of the mass in the visible universe. Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is the microscopic theory of strong interactions - one of the four fundamental forces - which describes how quarks and gluons interact with each other. The fundamental laws of QCD are elegantly concise; however, understanding the structural complexity of protons and neutrons in terms of quarks and gluons governed by those laws is one of the most important challenges facing physics today, a challenge that motivates the newest generation of experimental facilities, supercomputers, and nuclear scientists.The goal of this project is to perform new theoretical analysis and computations for important QCD scattering processes, develop phenomenological tools that can be used for reliable extraction of quark and gluon structure of the nucleon from existing and future experimental measurements, and thus address outstanding questions related to hadron structure and associated QCD dynamics. For example, the fundamental questions that the project will be able to address include: what role does the confined motion of quarks and gluons inside the nucleons play? Are there quantum correlations between the motion of quarks and gluons, their spin and the spin of the nucleon? How do quarks and gluons that come out of a high energy scattering make a transition into hadrons? What new insights can be gained from the production of collimated spray of hadrons (so-called jets)? This project will also provide much-needed guidance and predictions for the future Electron Ion Collider, the flagship nuclear experimental facility planned in the nuclear physics community.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.