Physicists crack code between matter and antimatter collision in groundbreaking calculations

In a significant mathematical feat, bridges seemingly unrelated quantum phenomena, researchers have demonstrated for the first time that the same basic physics controls what happens when you bounce electrons from oblique electrons, while when matter and antimatter collide New particles will be produced.

Breakthrough computing published in Physical Review D, using complex lattice quantum chromosome dynamics (QCD) to mathematically connect two different processes: “vacancies-like” interactions, where electrons spread the nipple, and “timetable” The process in which electrons and positrons generate electrons and fronts of the blades to create a coffee table pair.

Lead researcher Felipe Ortega-Gama works with mentors Jozef Dudek and Robert Edwards at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator facility, and William & Mary solves a long-term computing challenge that has puzzled nuclear physicists for decades.

“On the surface, the two processes look completely different,” explained Dudek, a senior scientist at Jefferson Lab, holding a joint position at William & Mary. “But in reality, they are described in the same physics. Their graphs are simply rotating with each other. Felipe shows them connected in a smooth, simple way in a single calculation done on quarks and gluons. .”

Although experimental measurements propose this connection, the calculation provides the first rigorous mathematical proof directly from the laws of quantum chromosome dynamics – describing how quarks and gluons interact to form such as protons, neutrons and Theory of particles such as fetal and fetal.

Solve the “box problem” in quantum computing

This study overcomes the fundamental challenges of computational quantum physics. When particles collide in laboratory experiments, the resulting particles will travel far before detection. However, computational limitations forced researchers to simulate these interactions in a tiny virtual “box” that are only several times larger than the range of strong nuclear forces themselves.

“This is a question because how do you associate the results of the finite box with the unlimited results measured by the experimental detector?” said Ortega-Gama, who completed this as part of his PhD degree work. In September 2024, before joining the University of California at Berkeley, at William and Mary’s research.

To bridge this gap, Ortega-GAMA builds on mathematical formalism developed by its mentors and other physicists that translate finite volume calculations into predictions of real-world experiments. This formalism has been used in simple cases before, but Ortega-Gama extends it to deal with unstable particles and complex interactions.

The calculation is particularly striking in describing the resonant behavior around ρ(Rho) particles, which is an unstable state that manifests in the energy regions where Pion strongly interacts with each other for interactions. come out.

Journey from student intern to breakthrough researcher

Ortega-Gama’s path to this discovery began with an undergraduate intern at Jefferson’s lab, where he was introduced to quantum chromosome dynamics by Raúl Briceño, who was a lab at the time. A co-appointed employee scientist and a professor at the old Dominic University.

“Roul showed me this graph with computational and experimental measurements of a bunch of particles above each other.” “That was the first time I realized you could accurately predict the properties of all these particles using QCD.”

This moment inspired Ortega-Gama’s interest in QCD research and brought him back to Jefferson Lab for graduate studies at William & Mary, where he and Doo Dudek and Hadron Lineage (HADSPEC) collaborated.

As a PhD student, Ortega-Gama benefited from weekly meetings with Dudek to refine the calculations and discuss ideas. “For every step of the calculation, I can contact him to collaborate so that we can adapt the code to the specific type of research we are interested in,” Ortega-Gama said.

Dudek praised the particularity of his students: “I’m going to say that in our lattice QCD field, the most powerful researchers are those who have expertise in formalism and actually do numerical values. The guy who calculates and uses numerical data. This guy can do both things at the highest level.”

Open a new door to powerful physics

This calculation represents not only elegant mathematical connections. It opens the door to predict particle interactions more accurately, which were previously impossible to directly calculate from the first principles.

By demonstrating that theoretical physicists can now move seamlessly between spacing classes and timeline processes, the study paves the way for more precise calculations of other particle interactions and properties. This could help explain the results of current and future particle physics experiments, including those of Jefferson Laboratory’s continuous electron beam accelerator facility.

The success of the project highlights the powerful research ecosystem of Jefferson Laboratory, with students, postdoctoral researchers and senior scientists collaborating in the fields of theory and experiment. Ortega-Gama’s work leverages a computing infrastructure developed by HADSPEC collaboratively, which includes extensive code developed by Edwards, an employee scientist at the Jefferson Laboratory Center for Theory.

Ortega-Gama is now reunited with his first mentor, Briceño, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, where he continues to advance QCD calculations. “It is absolutely helpful to have such an important work to promote the transition from a PhD. For postdoctoral scholars,” Ortega-Gema said.

As researchers continue to refine these computational techniques, they are getting closer to the ultimate goal of QCD: a comprehensive mathematical understanding of how powerful forces combine fundamental blocks of matter into the world we observe.