Welcome Features About Publications Current Research Teaching Contact

Visualizations of Quantum Chromodynamics

Centre for the Subatomic Structure of Matter (CSSM), Department of Physics, University of Adelaide, 5005 Australia
Copyright © 2003 − 2014

  • This page supports our manuscript entitled

    Lattice QCD Evidence that the Λ(1405) Resonance is an Antikaon-Nucleon Molecule

    published in Physical Review Letters as an Editors' Suggestion Featured in Physics.
  • An artist's rendition of the structure of the Lambda 1405 baryon resonance. The energy density of a typical gluon field fluctuation found in the QCD vacuum is illustrated. Its lumpy structure, representative of the underlying instanton-like field configurations, attract the quarks of the Lambda 1405. Here the up, down and strange (u, d and s) valence quarks of the Lambda 1405 are complemented by an up−anti-up (uu-bar) quark pair. A flux tube between the s and anti-u quarks indicates the formation of a K meson while the remaining quarks (u, u, d ) are bound to a proton with the Y-shape flux tube. Together, these form the molecular bound state of the Lambda 1405. An electron (solid line) scatters off the strange quark through the exchange of a photon (wavy line), providing information on the strange magnetic form factor of the Lambda 1405.

  • A high quality image is also available:

  • Additional visualizations of Quantun Chromodynamics (QCD) including those featured in Prof Frank Wilczek's 2004 Nobel Prize acceptance speech are available on the Visualizations of Quantum Chromodynamics page.


For copyright information, please contact Derek Leinweber.