Christopher Monahan

William and Mary, February 2, 1:00 pm

Pictures of a proton: quarks, gluons and hadrons from first principles

Understanding in detail the properties of protons and neutrons, two of the basic building blocks of the visible Universe, has been a long-standing goal for nuclear physics. The strong nuclear force binds together quarks and gluons into protons, neutrons and other hadrons, but the nonlinear, strongly-coupled nature of the strong force makes calculations of hadron properties very challenging. Recent theoretical developments mean calculations of the internal structure of hadrons, using lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD), have now become possible. Recent proof-of-principle calculations of generalised parton distributions, which encode the three-dimensional structure of hadrons, marked the advent of a new era in lattice QCD calculations. I introduce the ideas that underpin these developments and summarise some of the most exciting recent results.