The structure of the proton; An investigation on its charge and mass radius

Ruiz Ibáñez, Paula (2024) The structure of the proton; An investigation on its charge and mass radius. Bachelor's Thesis, Physics.

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Abstract

The proton is one of the main building blocks of nature and therefore understanding its spatial structure is essential. While its charge radius has been extensively studied, little is known about its mass radius. This thesis aims to clarify the connection between the current experimental results and the theoretical framework describing both the proton’s charge and mass distribution. To achieve this, we revisit the derivation and interpretation of the root-mean-square charge radius and move towards the mass structure of the proton, which is connected with the energy-momentum tensor of QCD. The gravitational form factors, which encode information on the spatial properties of the proton’s mass, are analyzed in the context of J/ψ photoproduction near threshold. This is accomplished by following a perturbative QCD approach that connects mass form factor with the trace of the EMT operator. This thesis focuses on the ambiguities, interpretation problems and experimental errors associated with the obtained radii. Although there is still not a clear picture of the proton’s structure, the results point towards a possible three level configuration based on lattice QCD predictions.

Item Type:	Thesis (Bachelor's Thesis)
Supervisor name:	Boer, D.
Degree programme:	Physics
Thesis type:	Bachelor's Thesis
Language:	English
Date Deposited:	25 Jul 2024 12:06
Last Modified:	30 Jul 2024 09:03
URI:	https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/33495

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