Quantum interference detected inside protons
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- Alexey Vladimirov at the Complutense University of Madrid and colleagues demonstrated quantum interference inside protons by combining more than a dozen datasets from CERN and Germany's DESY — succeeding where previous single-source investigations had produced unclear or contradictory results since the 1980s.
- The researchers identified specific quantum interference signatures, including a gluon interfering with a combination of a quark and its antimatter counterpart, an antiquark.
- Vladimirov says the parton model — currently physicists' best mathematical tool for the proton's interior — treats the proton 'almost like a classical bag of particles,' but the new work shows this picture is 'false' and the proton is 'more quantum than is usually thought.'
- The interference effect ties to quarks' and gluons' quantum mechanical spin, which the source notes 'has so far not been understood or measured very precisely.'
- The strong nuclear force that binds quarks together is one of the four fundamental forces of nature, and physicists 'have also yet to resolve how interference connects to forces that act on quarks and gluons,' per Vladimirov.
- The study, published in Physical Review Letters (DOI: 10.1103/rd63-hdwp), could motivate further experiments at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Virginia, according to Braun.
- Vladimir Braun at the University of Regensburg, who has worked on this physics for 40 years, said he was 'surprised' by where the biggest interference effects appeared — he 'expected that the big effects will be in different place.'
Why it matters: Vladimirov calls the parton model 'the main source of all our knowledge about the internal structure of the proton,' so demonstrating it overlooks real quantum interference means physicists' standard toolkit for interpreting proton collision data — including searches for new particles — is incomplete. The finding also ties to quark and gluon spin, which has never been precisely measured, and to the strong nuclear force, one of the four fundamental forces.
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