Unraveling the Inner World of the Proton with Supercomputers and Future Colliders
| Date/Time: | Tuesday, 26 Feb 2019 from 4:10 pm to 5:00 pm |
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| Location: | Phys 0003 |
| Phone: | 515-294-5441 |
| Channel: | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences |
| Actions: | Download iCal/vCal | Email Reminder |
Abstract: The proton has been a laboratory for carrying out precision tests of fundamental laws of nature and the search for new physics. In collider experiments, the spin and transverse structures of quarks and gluons inspire novel types of observables that probe the formation of the proton from its fundamental constituents. These structures are quantified by certain parton distribution functions (PDFs) that are not well determined by either theory or experiment so far. The PDFs have been extremely difficult to calculate from first-principle methods, particularly from lattice theory which simulates quantum gauge theories with supercomputers. In this talk, I will discuss a recent breakthrough in extracting the PDFs from lattice calculations, which is called large-momentum effective theory (LaMET). Through the rapid progress we made in the past few years, the lattice results of PDFs from LaMET have reached remarkable precision. Following this path, lattice theory can provide a complete tomography of the proton, which compliments next-generation experiments such as the electron-ion collider.
Bio: Dr. Yong Zhao obtained his bachelor's degree from Wuhan University in 2010. Then he completed his PhD in physics in 2015 under the supervision of Prof. Xiangdong Ji at the University of Maryland, College Park. From 2015 to 2016, he was a research associate of the University of Maryland and an affiliate at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Since 2016, he has been a postdoctoral associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Zhao has been working on the multi-dimensional structure of the proton from theory and phenomenology.