This proposal concerns basic research on the fundamental structure of matter, particularly the protons and neutrons that are constituents of all nuclei. The proposed project represents the continuation of a well-known "CTEQ global QCD analysis" project based at Michigan State University (MSU) that studies the distributions of partons inside the nucleon-the parton distribution functions-using the most up-to-date experimental data and theoretical knowledge. The partons are the quarks and gluons of QCD that provide the substructure of protons and neutrons. The "CTEQ parton distributions" determined by this analysis, are used worldwide by elementary particle physicists to link the experimental measurements made at the world's high-energy accelerators to the micro-world of quarks and gluons in which theoretical calculations can be done in the Standard Model, as well as in new physics scenarios that transcend the SM.
