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First Measurement of Distribution of Pressure Inside a Proton (phys.org)

Posted by BeauHD on from the under-pressure dept.

Okian Warrior shares a report from Phys.Org: Inside every proton in every atom in the universe is a pressure cooker environment that surpasses the atom-crushing heart of a neutron star. That's according to the first measurement of a mechanical property of subatomic particles, the pressure distribution inside the proton, which was carried out by scientists at the Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The nuclear physicists found that the proton's building blocks, the quarks, are subjected to a pressure of 100 decillion Pascal (1035) near the center of a proton, which is about 10 times greater than the pressure in the heart of a neutron star. The result was recently published in the journal Nature.

3 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. Macroscopic concept? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Could someone please explain this? I always thought pressure was a more macroscopic concept, related to the force exerted by (many) bouncing particles on a wall, or similar. What is the meaning of pressure within a proton? And what is its meaning? Like density or "edges", I would think macroscopic concepts are no longer valid in that realm.

  2. Re:Is there energy to be had here? by pezezin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Maybe. Some physicists have proposed the existence of "electroweak stars", where energy would be generated from a process know as "electroweak burning" where quarks are converted to leptons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  3. Re:Is there energy to be had here? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Nuclear fission is possible because there can exist free residual nuclei which in sum hold less energy than starting large fissile nucleus. It is a sort of balanced equation of materials and energy, where on both sides of equation you have all materials accounted for, but in terms of energy, you get surplus free energy on resulting side.

    In case of nucleons however, we don't have such equation, because as far as we know, in nature's supply, we only have protons and neutrons, and they are approximately same size. If quarks could exist in free form, or build some stable particles smaller than protons and neutrons, we'd could have a theoretical chance to rob protons or neutrons of a part of their energy.