Understanding the Quark Sivers Equation and its Use for Locating and Graphing Quarks in Multiple Dimensions
Academic Level at Time of Presentation
Senior
Major
Physics, Mathematics
Minor
Astronomy, History
List all Project Mentors & Advisor(s)
Dr. Joshua Ridley, Dr. Jeff Osborne, Dr. David Roach
Presentation Format
Oral Presentation
Abstract/Description
Since 1964, we have known that hadrons, the most common and stable of which are protons and neutrons, are made up of elementary particles called quarks. To this day, however, we do not fully understand how they move and are distributed in a 3-dimensional space, what causes their direction, and if there is a pattern to their directional momentums. We also do not understand what makes hadrons spin; it is believed that quarks are responsible for around a third of that momentum, however, we are unsure what other factors contribute to the spin. The Sivers effect explains the unknown contributors to the spin of a quark. The Quark-Sivers equation takes into consideration the Sivers effect and mathematically locates a quark’s location as it is moving in a 3-dimensional space with transverse momentums. The equation deals with Wilson lines that follow the direction of an object in a 3-dimensional space. These follow into the transverse momentum dependent (TMD) parton distribution functions, which show the asymmetrical trends of quarks’ movements. The Wilson lines drive the spin-momentum trend, which gives way to the Sivers effect.
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Honors College Senior Thesis Presentations
Understanding the Quark Sivers Equation and its Use for Locating and Graphing Quarks in Multiple Dimensions
Since 1964, we have known that hadrons, the most common and stable of which are protons and neutrons, are made up of elementary particles called quarks. To this day, however, we do not fully understand how they move and are distributed in a 3-dimensional space, what causes their direction, and if there is a pattern to their directional momentums. We also do not understand what makes hadrons spin; it is believed that quarks are responsible for around a third of that momentum, however, we are unsure what other factors contribute to the spin. The Sivers effect explains the unknown contributors to the spin of a quark. The Quark-Sivers equation takes into consideration the Sivers effect and mathematically locates a quark’s location as it is moving in a 3-dimensional space with transverse momentums. The equation deals with Wilson lines that follow the direction of an object in a 3-dimensional space. These follow into the transverse momentum dependent (TMD) parton distribution functions, which show the asymmetrical trends of quarks’ movements. The Wilson lines drive the spin-momentum trend, which gives way to the Sivers effect.