Faculty in the media: Dr. Cole weighs in on pion and electron beams

In the third in a series of articles on the production of N*s for The Innovation Platform, Lamar University’s Professor Philip L Cole discusses the importance of using both high-intensity pion and electron beams for revealing the inner structure of excited protons (N*s) in the second and third resonance regions that decay through the two-pion channel.

"The time has come to understand the structure of the proton and that is only possible through understanding how the internal components of the proton, the quarks and gluons, emerge to form nucleons (protons and neutrons, collectively)," the physics professor said. "Over 99.95% of the mass of the visible Universe comes from nucleons. Hence, the research seeks to ultimately understand the nature of where mass comes from as the quarks and gluon combine to form N*s, the excited states of nucleons."