Professor challenges long-held assumptions of symmetry in physics

For centuries, scientists have used symmetry as a foundation to understand the universe. The new research findings on symmetry now add to the growing body of scientific knowledge that powers breakthroughs in energy, technology, medicine and beyond.

Conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, the research reveals that quarks -- the tiny building blocks of matter -- occasionally defy expectations. When hit by high-energy electrons, they sometimes separate and recombine unevenly, challenging long-held ideas about symmetry in nuclear physics.

The research team's high-precision measurements challenge the status-quo and offer new insight into the strong force that binds subatomic particles. These findings may impact how future experiments interpret quark behavior and the structure of matter.

"The assumptions we make based on symmetries greatly simplify our analyses," said Dutta, a faculty member in the MSU Department of Physics and Astronomy. "But they haven't been tested quantitatively with precision until now. Our new results show when the symmetries are valid and when they need certain corrections."

By uncovering symmetry violations, Dutta and his collaborators are helping refine the theoretical tools physicists use to study subatomic behavior. Their work also lays the groundwork for future studies into other, more subtle symmetries, potentially revealing more about the inner workings of protons and neutrons -- the particles that form the core of every atom.

MSU graduate student Hem Bhatt also contributed to the experiment and data analysis as part of his Ph.D. thesis. He was joined on the research team by doctoral students Deepak Bhetuwal and Abishek Karki, who have since completed their degrees, as well as post-doctoral researchers Latiful Kabir, now a staff scientist at Brookhaven National Lab in New York, and Carlos Ayerbe Gayoso, currently a research scientist at Old Dominion University in Virginia. Nuclear physicists from 25 institutions around the world participated in the significant international collaboration.