Huey-Wen Lin
Michigan State University, MI·Physics
Protons and neutrons are made of quarks and gluons, held together by the strong force described by quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Basic questions about them remain open.
- Fields
Physics
- Topics
lattice QCD
quantum chromodynamics
nuclear physics
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2028
What they work on
- Compute parton distribution functions of nucleons and mesons with lattice QCD at high precision, varying lattice spacing and volume and working at the physical pion mass to control errors from the simulation.
- Combine precise lattice QCD results for parton distribution functions with global analyses of experimental data to improve the picture of hadron internal structure.
- Calculate generalized parton distributions, which describe the three-dimensional arrangement of quarks inside hadrons, using quasi-PDF and pseudo-PDF methods, with emphasis on their skewness dependence.
More about the research
How do quarks and gluons produce most of a proton's mass and its spin? Why is the pion, made of one fewer quark, about ten times lighter? Experiments at Jefferson Lab and the future Electron-Ion Collider map the inside of these particles. Some features of the strong force, however, are hard to measure directly. This project uses lattice QCD (LQCD), which simulates QCD on supercomputers by dividing space and time into a four-dimensional grid. The approach computes the properties of protons, neutrons and mesons (particles made of a quark and an antiquark) from first principles, with controllable uncertainties.
Why it matters
This is basic nuclear physics. Precise first-principles calculations of how quarks and gluons are arranged inside protons, neutrons and pions could help explain where these particles get their mass and spin. The results could also complement and help guide experiments at Jefferson Lab and the future Electron-Ion Collider.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Nikolaos Kidonakis
Kennesaw State University, GA·Physics
Calculate soft-gluon corrections, from low-energy gluon radiation, to top-antitop pair, single-top, and top-pair-plus-Z or Higgs production at NNLO and N3LO, including differential distributions for LHC and future colliders.
Wim Cosyn
Florida International University, FL·Physics·Early-career
Model high-energy electron scattering off the deuteron and helium using light-front quantum mechanics to separate nuclear structure from reaction dynamics.
Andrea Shindler
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Physics
Calculate the electric dipole moments of protons and neutrons induced by theories beyond the Standard Model, to probe the source of the universe's matter-antimatter asymmetry.
The school
Michigan State University: 28 labs on PI Pages, $932M a year on research, 555 research doctorates a year.
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