- 2378 - Atoms are composed of electrons, protons and neutrons. A neutral atom has the same number of protons and electrons, and there is a different number of protons and electrons for each element. This Review delves into the inside of the proton to discover the even more elementary particles, quarks and gluons.
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--------------------- 2378 - PROTON - defining the proton inside the atom.
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- See Review 2377 to learn “defining the atom“. We learn that all the other elements in the periodic table above hydrogen and helium were created in the nuclear fusion of the stars The first stars formed with only hydrogen and helium.
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- The atom is the smallest particle that characterizes a chemical element. There are 118 chemical elements in the Periodic Table and each one has a different atom. When the ancients invented the atom they characterized it as the smallest indivisible part of matter.
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- Later it was discovered that the atom was composed of even smaller “indivisible” parts. Atoms are composed of electrons, protons and neutrons. A neutral atom has the same number of protons and electrons, and there is a different number of protons and electrons for each element. This Review delves into the inside of the proton to discover the even more elementary particles, quarks and gluons.
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- In the Observable Universe we think there are a mere 10^53 kilograms of ordinary matter. That is a One followed by 53 zeros. This matter is composed of 10^80 protons. Kilograms are a measure of mass. So, protons must have mass, but, what inside a proton creates this mass?
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- This review will use “protons” to mean both protons and neutrons , just in order to simplify my writing it. Protons are composed of quarks and gluons. There are 3 quarks inside every proton. The quarks carry an electric charge and the sum of their charges equals plus 1. This exactly balances the electrons electric charge of minus 1.
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- The mystery starts when we add up the mass of the quarks we only get to 2% the mass of the proton itself. Where does the rest of the mass come from?
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- We think that it must come from the complex interactions of spin and mass between the quarks and gluons. Science has developed the mathematics to define these interactions. It is called Quantum Chromodynamics, or QCD.
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- Science is trying to use this math to answer how the quarks and gluons are clumped together or spread out inside the nucleus. We need to learn how fast they move and how they interact together.
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- It is 50 years after the first discovery of quarks. Today we need to study these quarks themselves that are 10,000 times smaller than the proton.
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- Protons are positively charged. “Like charges” repeal. So, what holds the proton together inside the nucleus? It is called the Strong Nuclear Force. This force is carried by the “Gluons“.
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- You can think of this like the Electromagnetic Force that exchanges “photons” in order to carry the force.
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- The differences comes with the fact that the Strong Force works in opposite ways. It gets stronger with distance separation rather than weaker with distance separation. This opposite force holding protons together is called a “ Color Charge” Thus, the name chromodynamics.
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- Photons carry the electric charge and gluons carry the color charge. Gluons also interact with each other exchanging more gluons. QCD has to deal with these feedback loops of interactions which gets very complex.
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- The Strong Force gets weaker the closer quarks come together, the opposite of the electromagnetic force. At the shortest distances inside the proton the quarks feel no force at all and behave as free particles.
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- When quarks move away from each other the force increases rapidly confining the quarks inside the nucleus. Consequently science has never found a quark or a gluon outside the nucleus of an atom.
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- For science to see inside he nucleus they must use wavelengths much smaller than light. They must use high frequency X-rays. By shining X-rays on the nucleus an interference pattern can be detected describing the atomic structure. This technique can probe down to distances as small as 10^-9 meters.
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- By measuring the reflected wavelengths coming out of the proton we can resolve distance down to 10^-15 meters. Called femtometers. This is the distance scale of the proton. This technique called Deep Inelastic Scattering, or DIS, is starting to allow the study of interactions of quarks and gluons inside protons.
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- The study of these behaviors must use “probabilities” because these subatomic particles exist has a haze and not as points. The do not exist as specific places and times. But, as probabilities of places and times.
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- New instruments like the Electron - Ion Collider, or EIC, are beginning to provide a 3-D maps of inside the proton. Proton positions and momentum can then be measured to define the quarks and gluons mass and spin.
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- They hope to learn how the QCD interactions occur between quarks and gluons. This is what develops the 3-D maps of quarks and gluons inside the proton. Each level of higher an higher resolution requires higher and higher energies of the X-ray probes.
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- Electronics that is ubiquitous to our society is limited to developments down to 100 atoms dimensions,. This is about 10 nanometers distance. To see inside the proton we need to resolve structures that a re 1,000,000 times smaller.
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- We re just learning to use nanotechnology. What we are trying to create is femtotechnology. That is a million times more powerful. Our far future may be using this technology just as we are using electromagnetic nanotechnology today.
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- Learning to design and manipulate , or engineer, at this level transforms society into a whole new future. Stay in school, all that we know today will be obsolete.
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- Other Reviews about atoms and protons:
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- 2333 - Rainbows can tell us what the Universe is made of. Introduction to the science of spectroscopy.
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- 2318 - Brownian motion from atoms you can not see.
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- 2315 - About how atoms were first discovered.
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- 2307 - How small is the atom?
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- 2255 - History of the atom.
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- 2256 - Atom’s stability and uncertainty?
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- 1654 - Everything we know about protons.
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- 983 - How an atom works? All the math formulas.
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- 985 - Measuring how an atom works?
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- 979 - Calculating the mass of the proton.
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- 924 - Rutherford’s atom. How the atom was discovered in 1911.
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- May 23, 2019 753
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--------------------- Friday, May 17, 2019 -------------------------
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