Glimpsing Colour in a World of Black and White

TL;DR

This paper reviews how experiments at Jefferson Lab explore the internal colour structure of nucleons and nuclei, combining experimental data with theory to understand quark confinement and QCD vacuum properties.

Contribution

It provides an overview of experimental approaches and theoretical insights into the colour dynamics within nucleons and nuclei, advancing our understanding of QCD confinement.

Findings

Experimental techniques probe colourless nuclei to reveal internal colour structure

Theoretical calculations help interpret experimental data on quark and gluon confinement

Insights into the QCD vacuum influence the understanding of hadron properties

Abstract

The past 40 years have taught us that nucleons are built of constituents that carry colour charges with interactions governed by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). How experiments (past, present and future) at Jefferson Lab probe colourless nuclei to map out these internal colour degrees of freedom is presented. When combined with theoretical calculations, these will paint a picture of how the confinement of quarks and gluons, and the structure of the QCD vacuum, determine the properties of all (light) strongly interacting states.