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Student Colloquium, Jeppe Thingholm: Deep Inelastic Scattering: A Proton Autopsy

[Translate to English:] Colorful illustration of the proton structure

Info about event

Time

Monday 8 May 2023,  at 15:15 - 16:00

Location

Fys. Aud.

Supervisor: Karsten Riisager

In 1955 Robert Hofstadter published his findings of the first measurement of the proton radius using elastic electron proton scattering. At the time, the proton was believed to be an elementary point particle, thus Hofs-tadter’s measurements led to new efforts over the next two decades to understand the structure of the proton. A new linear accelerator was built at Stanford University, one which would allow electrons to be accelerated to much higher energies than any other place in the world. This allowed for measurements in the region dubbed ’deep inelastic scattering’, which would yield information about the structure of the proton. Deep inelastic elec-tron nucleon scattering and inelastic neutrino nucleon scattering would confirm the constituents of the nucleons being quarks and gluons from quantum chromo dynamics. Quarks were at the time mainly believed to be a mathematical construct, helpful in describing the structure of the nucleon.