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A glimpse at the inner structure of the proton

The size of the space taken up by a proton’s mass has been measured, and it’s much smaller than previously thought. The result is a key step towards understanding the complex structure of this fundamental building block.
  1. Anna M. Stasto

    1. Anna M. Stasto is in the Department of Physics, Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.

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Most of the visible mass of the Universe is contained in atomic nuclei, which are made up of protons and neutrons. Protons consist of tiny particles known as quarks and gluons, but the mass of the quarks adds up to only a fraction of a per cent of the total proton mass. The gluons and their interactions with the quarks are responsible for making up the rest of the proton’s mass1, but gluons have no mass and no electric charge, so probing them is an experimental challenge. Writing in Nature, Duran et al.2 report a measurement of the proton’s ‘mass radius’, a quantity that can reveal how its mass is distributed and thus inform the understanding of the structure of matter.

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Nature 615, 807-808 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00836-1

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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