On mass and matter

• Published in: AAPPS bulletin Vol. 31; no. 1; pp. 1 - 11
• Main Author: Roberts, Craig D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore Springer Singapore 01.12.2021; Springer Nature B.V; Springer
• Subjects: Astronomy; Astrophysics and Cosmology; Atomic; Molecular; Optical and Plasma Physics; Particle and Nuclear Physics; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Quarks; Review Article; Symmetry
• ISSN: 2309-4710; 0218-2203; 2309-4710
• DOI: 10.1007/s43673-021-00005-4

The visible Universe is largely characterised by a single mass scale, namely, the proton mass, m p . Contemporary theory suggests that m p emerges as a consequence of gluon self-interactions, which are a defining characteristic of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the theory of strong interactions in the Standard Model. However, the proton is not elementary. Its mass appears as a corollary of other, more basic emergent phenomena latent in the QCD Lagrangian, e.g. generation of nuclear-size gluon and quark mass-scales, and a unique effective charge that may describe QCD interactions at all accessible momentum scales. These remarks are explained herein, and focusing on the distribution amplitudes and functions of π and K mesons, promising paths for their empirical verification are elucidated. Connected therewith, in anticipation that production of J / ψ -mesons using π and K beams can provide access to the gluon distributions in these pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone modes, predictions for all π and K distribution functions are provided at the scale ζ = m J / ψ .