This passage discusses the discovery and understanding of the internal structure of protons through particle scattering experiments. It begins by describing how protons are composed of quarks and how early experiments confirmed this. Then, it explains how higher-energy scattering experiments provide finer details of the proton's structure, revealing a complex internal structure involving quarks, gluons, and even the possibility of charm quarks. The text also delves into the challenges of modeling and understanding low-energy proton collisions and how artificial intelligence, particularly neural networks, has been used to explore various proton interior models. Finally, it mentions that a neural network has tentatively found a model suggesting the existence of intrinsic charm in protons, though further confirmation is needed.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. People are made of cells, which are made of molecules, which are made of atoms.
2. Atoms are made of electrons, protons, and neutrons, which consist of three quarks.
3. Protons and neutrons can sometimes be made of five quarks, including the charm quark.
4. Protons are common in the universe and make up most of the visible matter.
5. The interior of protons remains a mystery, and their structure was confirmed in the late 60s to consist of three quarks.
6. Physicists probe smaller scales of nature through scattering experiments.
7. Scattering experiments involve particles of matter, like electrons, to study subatomic scales.
8. Electron microscopes use electrons to study the structure of objects.
9. Electrons can be used to study anything larger than their wavelength, which depends on energy.
10. High-energy electrons can be used to study the interior of a proton.
11. The proton's interior consists of intrinsic particles like quarks and extrinsic particles created during collisions.
12. Intrinsic charm quarks may exist inside protons briefly due to Heisenberg uncertainty.
13. Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is used to describe the strong nuclear force within protons.
14. Calculations for proton interiors are easier at higher energies and more challenging at lower energies.
15. Artificial intelligence, like neural networks, helps analyze and model proton interiors.
16. A neural network found a model with intrinsic charm that better predicts experimental data, but it's a tentative result at three sigma.
Please note that some of these facts are about the methodology and challenges in studying proton interiors rather than specific proton properties.