Protons might be stretchier than they should be. The subatomic particles are built of smaller particles called quarks, which are bound together by a powerful interaction known as the strong force. New ...

A proton’s valence quarks (blue, red, and green), quark-antiquark pairs, and gluons (springs). Scalar gluon activity (pink) extends beyond the electric charge radius (orange) that surrounds the ...

A collaboration of nuclear theorists has used supercomputers to predict the spatial distributions of charges, momentum, and other properties of 'up' and 'down' quarks within protons. The calculations ...

A view inside a proton moving at nearly the speed of light toward the viewer with its spin pointing horizontally shows differences in the spatial distributions of the momentum of up (left) and down ...

What makes up the matter we perceive in the universe? To start, there are the usual suspects, like electrons, protons, quarks and neutrinos. But if those particles aren't strange enough for you, I'm ...

The particles that are in an atom: protons, neutrons and electrons The particles that are in protons and neutrons: quarks The four fundamental forces: gravity, electromagnetism, the strong force and ...

Physics at the smallest scales is a challenge of observation: Particles are often fleeting, and the forces that govern their behavior are nearly imperceptible. But now, by exploiting decades-old data ...

An analysis by physicists of colliding protons is tackling the mystery of where protons get their intrinsic property known as spin. Along with neutrons, protons are housed inside an atom's nucleus.

Nuclear physicists may have finally pinpointed where in the proton a large fraction of its mass resides. A recent experiment has revealed the radius of the proton's mass that is generated by the ...

Quantum physics is usually associated with particle colliders and vacuum chambers, not with the proteins quietly shuttling energy inside our cells. Yet a new line of research argues that protons in ...