Physicists from both the United States and China have developed a new method that can calculate the properties of quarks and gluons in a nuclear substance created at high temperatures and densities. Their research, featured in the Physical Review Letters journal, helps in explaining elementary particle behavior under extreme conditions.
Quarks are fundamental building blocks that form adrons, including protons and neutrons. Gluons, on the other hand, serve as carriers of strong interaction between quarks that “glue” them onto the adrons. Quantum chromodynamics (KHD) is a theory essential in describing dynamics involving quarks and gluons plus strong interaction.
Calculating the properties of quarks and gluons in a nuclear substance is a difficult task that expends vast computational resources. Taking into account the final temperature and density of the clash of heavy ions or neutron stars makes the task even more arduous.
From the University of California in Los Angeles (USA) and the University of Qinghua (China), physicists have introduced a brand-new method that can solve this problem. They used the “contour deformation” technique, allowing the transition of integrals in the multidimensional space of quarks and gluons into integrals along a one-dimensional contour on a complex plane. This simplifies calculations and reduces errors.
Through this method, Physics experts achieved actual values for quantities such as freedom energy, entropy, and pressure of the nuclear substance at different temperatures and densities. They also matched their results with data obtained from the large adron Collider (BAC) and relativistic heavy collider (RTK) experiments.
Physicists believe their method can apply to other KHD issues, such as phase transitions in nuclear substance or energy distribution among quarks and gluons. Furthermore, their work hopes to provide a better understanding of matter composition on a fundamental level.