The origin of matter is one of the great puzzles of nature. Even though the visible component is only a small part of the mass/energy balance of the universe the strong force that permanently confines quarks and gluons to atomic nuclei remains mysterious. Understanding of the phenomenon of confinement is one of the fundamental questions in physics. Protons, neutrons and other hadrons are the bound states of quarks and gluons allowed by confinement. This project will pursue studies of individual hadrons and their interaction and is expected to offer a unique window into this fundamental phenomenon. In the process, this project will enable best practice spectroscopy analysis across a broad range of forthcoming experiments, particularly at the Jefferson Laboratory. Education activities are an integral part of this effort. Students will have ample training opportunities and will acquire computational and analytical skills that will serve them well in their future careers in the industry or academia. A vibrant set of summer undergraduate research experiences will be hosted by the investigators at the Jefferson Laboratory with both computer science and particle physics projects.
Developments in particle accelerators and detection techniques have led to a new generation of experiments in hadron physics that are flourishing around the world. An important set of experiments studies hadron spectroscopy, what hadrons exist and with what properties. The new experiments at these facilities generate complicated data sets, which demand a qualitatively new level of sophistication in analysis never achieved before. The objective of the project is to develop new theoretical tools and underlying computational services for analysis of large statistics data sets from current and future experiments in hadron spectroscopy with the goal to search for new hadrons, in particular the so called, hybrids and glueballs, which are expected to carry some unique signatures of the confinement phenomenon. The unique features of the underlying theory of strong interactions also make it an attractive template for constructing theories beyond the Standard Model of fundamental interaction. This project will enable such work.
