Physics & Astronomy Colloquium

4:00 PM, Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Room 155, Chem-Phys Building

Dr. Elizabeth Beise

Department of Physics, University of Maryland
National Science Foundation

``Strange and not so Strange Things about the Proton''

It has been over 60 years since the Nobel Prize was awarded to Otto Stern for the discovery that the proton has an anomalously large magnetic moment, nearly three times what one expects from a spin-1/2 point particle. This was one of the first hints of the underlying quark-gluon structure of the protons and neutrons that make up the bulk of the visible mass of our universe. The now well-established theory of Quantum Chromodynamics describes the strong interaction between quarks and the gluons that bind them, and accounts for many of the observed bound states that are seen in nature. But there are still many unanswered questions, such as how the electromagnetic properties of hadrons arise in these bound states. In this talk I'll present an overview of where we stand today in our understanding of nucleon electromagnetic properties, as well as a more detailed look at the use of parity violation in electron scattering to specifically pin down the contribution of strange quarks to the proton's charge and magnetism.

Refreshments will be served in CP 155 at 3:45 PM

Please note special time and day!