''Follow that quarkexclamation'' (and other exclusive stories)

Abstract

Quarks are considered to be the basic constituents of matter. In a series of recent experiments, Carroll studied exclusive reactions as a means of determining the interactions between quarks. Quantum Chromo-dynamics (QCD) is the modern theory of the interaction of quarks. This theory explains how quarks are held together via the strong interaction in particles known as hadrons. Hadrons consisting of three quarks are called baryons. Hadrons made up of a quark and an antiquark are called mesons. In his lecture, Carroll describes what happens when two hadrons collide and scatter to large angles. The violence of the collision causes the gluons that bind the quarks in a particular hadron to temporarily lose their grip on particular quarks. Quarks scramble toward renewed unity with other quarks, and they undergo rearrangement, which generally results in additional new particles. A two-body exclusive reaction has occurred when the same number of particles exist before and after the collisions. At large angles these exclusive reactions are very rare. The labels on the quarks known as flavor enable the experimenter to follow the history of individual quarks in detail during these exclusive reactions. Carroll describes the equipment used in the experiment to measure short distance,more » hard collisions at large angles. The collisions he discusses occur when a known beam of mesons or protons collide with a stationary proton target. Finally, Carroll summarizes what the experiments have shown from the study of exclusive reactions and what light some of their results shed on the theory of QCD.« less