Thanks to more than 8,000 experimental data obtained in particle accelerators in different parts of the world between 1950 and 2013, a group of scientists from the University of Granada (UGR) has managed to measure the nuclear force in the most precise way so far.
The four fundamental forces in physics are gravitational interaction, electromagnetic interaction, strong interaction, and weak interaction. These forces are essential to explain the world as we know it and of the four, the strong one is the most intense interaction of all; it is what holds the atomic nuclei together. This force is responsible for the thermonuclear fusion that takes place inside the stars from hydrogen. Without that force, the Sun could not emit radiation. ” In physics, the knowledge of the strong interaction is essential to understand and describe the processes that take place inside the nuclei, ” says Amaro.
Well, in their work, the Granada researchers propose a new form for the nuclear force, which they have called “granular potential” . And it is that, after the statistical analysis of thousands of data, they determined that their results have an average precision of 96%.
This “granular potential” will facilitate the study of the properties of the strong interaction, as well as the independence of charge of the nuclear forces, or the validity of the modern chiral theories (approximations of quantum chromodynamics for low energy). In the same way, it can be used to theoretically calculate the properties of atomic nuclei and their internal energy, also allowing us to know the intrinsic theoretical error, due to the partial ignorance of the strong interaction, which until now was an unknown.
As explained by Professor José Enrique Amaro, co-author of the scientific article published in the Physical Review journal edited by the American Physical Society, “the importance of our research lies in the fact that we have not only obtained the nuclear potential, but also its theoretical statistical error.” This allows limits to be set on the precision with which the strong interaction can be empirically known, since experimental data are subject to error. These errors limit the precision with which current physical theories can describe atomic nuclei ”.
The research was carried out entirely at the UGR by Rodrigo Navarro Pérez, Enrique Ruiz Arriola and José Enrique Amaro, physicists from the Hadronic research group of the Department of Atomic, Molecular and Nuclear Physics and the Carlos I Institute of Theoretical and Computational Physics.
