Dzierba
Joyce
 Q: What’s a scientific term like “quark” have to do with James Joyce, the Irish author who will be celebrated in Dublin this year on the centennial of “Bloomsday.” Hint: The answer is at the end of this story.
A.: The name “quark” comes from the line “three quarks for Muster Mark,” a nonsense phrase from “Finnegan’s Wake.” |
After scientists discovered the first building blocks of matter—the electron, proton and neutron—in the first half of the 20th century, the subatomic world seemed all sewn up.
Fast forward to the 21st century. With the help of accelerators, scientists have now discovered hundreds of subatomic particles. Among them is the quark which makes up neutrons and protons, among other particles, and gets its quirky name from Irish author James Joyce. (See end of story)
Like the electron and proton of the atom, quarks are bound together inside the particles they make up. The force binding quarks, however, is dramatically stronger—so strong, in fact, that while protons and electrons can be separated with ease, no one has ever freed a quark. According to existing physics theory, they are forever confined.
But the search is on to understand how the strong force binding quarks works and why quarks remain confined. Alex Dzierba, professor of physics at IU Bloomington since 1973 and this year’s Distinguished Faculty Research Lecturer, is leading an international collaboration of 100 physicists in experiments to produce a new kind of particle (called “exotic mesons”) that can be used to better study the mechanisms and forces that keep quarks confined.
Solving the confinement-of-quarks puzzle could reveal how the most basic components of matter interact and lead to detection of an entirely new form of matter. Calling quark confinement “one of the great mysteries of modern physics,” the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science ranks the quark question as one of its top research priorities for the next 20 years.
Dzierba delivers his lecture “Exotic Particles and the Confinement of Quarks” on Monday, April 12, at 3 p.m. in the Indiana Memorial Union’s Whittenberger Auditorium, IUB.
The annual DFRL lecture is co-sponsored by the Office of the Bloomington Chancellor and the Office of the Vice President for Research. Inaugurated in 1980, the lecture series honors the achievements of IUB faculty. Past distinguished lecturers include Ciprian Foias, Elinor Ostrom, Bruce Cole and Esther Thelen.
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