Theory and Phenomenology of Strong Interactions

核物理和粒子物理学中最困难的悬而未决的问题之一是如何理解这样的系统：其中的组件紧密结合在一起，以至于不可能将它们分开，就像质子、中子和许多其他粒子内部发生的那样。这个项目旨在探索从这样复杂的系统中获得明确信息的几种方法，以便人们能够理解它们是如何组合在一起的，以及它们为什么以这种方式相互作用。对于大多数要研究的方法，研究人员开始了这里使用的方法的开发。该项目强调与其他几所大学和实验室的研究人员合作。教育部分是要在这里开展的工作的一个重要部分。该项目允许对研究生和本科生进行理论分析方面的培训，并将使指导这些学生在未来的工业界或学术界取得成功成为可能。这个项目包括六个将被研究的具体问题，PI和co-PI在各自的专业领域各有三个问题，所有这些问题都与如何理解组成粒子如此紧密地束缚以至于很难或不可能分离它们的系统有关，例如内部的质子和中子。这些具体问题是：1)如果将质子和中子聚集在一起的强核力的相互作用电荷的数量与我们宇宙中的三个不同，那么它们将如何组装；2)如何最好地从实验中提取关于它们详细内部结构的最大信息量；3)如何在强力理论中计算它们的实际动力学相互作用，这是实验研究的一个现实的简化模型；以及4)这个理想化的理论似乎与真实的理论非常接近，因为从理想中可以准确地计算出比从真实理论中更多的东西；5)如何模拟由宇宙射线中出现的粒子(µ子)形成的原子结构，它比传统原子小得多，这种粒子肯定存在，但尚未被实验观察到；6)使用弯曲时空中强相互作用理论和引力之间的联系来研究其中强相互作用粒子具有如此高的环境能量，可以说它们具有有限的温度的系统。

One of the most difficult unanswered problems in nuclear and particle physics is how to understand systems in which the components are so tightly bound together that it is impossible to separate them, as occurs inside the proton and neutron and many other particles. This project is designed to explore several methods of obtaining definitive information from such complicated systems, so that one can understandand how they are put together and why they interact the way they do. For most of the approaches to be researched, the investigators initiated the development of the methods used here. This project emphasizes collaborative work with researchers at several other universities and laboratories. The educational component represents an important part of the work to be performed here. The project allows for the training of graduate and undergraduate students both on the analytical aspects of theory, and will also make possible the mentoring of these students for success in their future carreers in industry or academia. This project includes six specific problems that will be studied, three each for the PI and co-PI in areas of their respective expertise, all related to the question of how to understand systems in which the component particles are so tightly bound that it is difficult or impossible to separate them, such as inside protons and neutrons. These specific problems are 1) how the proton and neutron would be assembled if the strong nuclear force that holds them together had a different number of interaction charges than the three in our universe; 2) how best to extract the maximal amount of information about their detailed internal structure from experiments; 3) how to compute their actual dynamical interactions in a strong-force theory that is a realistic simplified model of the one studied experimentally, and 4) how closely this idealized theory appears to mimic the real one, since much more can be computed exactly from the ideal than from the real theory; 5) how to simulate the structure of an atom, much smaller than conventional atoms, formed from particles (muons) that appear in cosmic rays, which is guaranteed to exist but has not yet been experimentally observed; and 6) using a connection between strongly-interacting theories and gravity in curved spacetimes to study systems in which the strongly-interacting particles have such a high ambient energy that they can be said to have a finite temperature.