QCD and strongly coupled gauge theories : challenges and perspectives

We highlight the progress, current status, and open challenges of QCD-driven physics, in theory and in experiment. We discuss how the strong interaction is intimately connected to a broad sweep of physical problems, in settings ranging from astrophysics and cosmology to strongly coupled, complex systems in particle and condensed-matter physics, as well as to searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. We also discuss how success in describing the strong interaction impacts other fields, and, in turn, how such subjects can impact studies of the strong interaction. In the course of the work we offer a perspective on the many research streams which flow into and out of QCD, as well as a vision for future developments.Peer reviewe

Precision spectroscopy of helium in a magic wavelength optical dipole trap

Improvements in both theory and frequency metrology of few-electron systems such as hydrogen and helium have enabled increasingly sensitive tests of quantum electrodynamics (QED), as well as ever more accurate determinations of fundamental constants and the size of the nucleus. At the same time advances in cooling and trapping of neutral atoms have revolutionized the development of increasingly accurate atomic clocks. Here, we combine these fields to reach the highest precision on an optical tranistion in the helium atom to date by employing a Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a magic wavelength optical dipole trap. The measured transition accurately connects the ortho- and parastates of helium and constitutes a stringent test of QED theory. In addition we test polarizability calculations and ultracold scattering properties of the helium atom. Finally, our measurement probes the size of the nucleus at a level exceeding the projected accuracy of muonic helium measurements currently being performed in the context of the proton radius puzzle

1,3,2,5-Diazadiborinine featuring nucleophilic and electrophilic boron centres

The seminal discovery in 1865 by Kekulé that benzene nucleus exists with cyclic skeleton is considered to be the beginning of aromatic chemistry. Since then, a myriad of cyclic molecules displaying aromatic property have been synthesized. Meanwhile, borazine (B(3)N(3)H(6)), despite the isostructural and isoelectronic relationships with benzene, exhibits little aromaticity. Herein, we report the synthesis of a 1,3,2,5-diazadiborinine (B(2)C(2)N(2)R(6)) derivative, a hybrid inorganic/organic benzene, and we present experimental and computational evidence for its aromaticity. In marked contrast to the reactivity of benzene, borazine, and even azaborinines previously reported, 1,3,2,5-diazadiborinine readily forms the adducts with methyl trifluoromethanesulfonate and phenylacetylene without any catalysts. Moreover, 1,3,2,5-diazadiborine activates carbon dioxide giving rise to a bicycle[2,2,2] product, and the binding process was found to be reversible. These results, thus, demonstrate that 1,3,2,5-diazadiborinine features both nucleophilic and electrophilic boron centres, with a formal B(+I)/B(+III) mixed valence system, in the aromatic six-membered B(2)C(2)N(2) ring

Two-photon laser spectroscopy of antiprotonic helium and the antiproton-to-electron mass ratio

Physical laws are believed to be invariant under the combined transformations of charge, parity and time reversal (CPT symmetry). This implies that an antimatter particle has exactly the same mass and absolute value of charge as its particle counterpart. Metastable antiprotonic helium is a three-body atom consisting of a normal helium nucleus, an electron in its ground state and an antiproton occupying a Rydberg state with high principal and angular momentum quantum numbers, respectively n and l, such that n~l+1 ~ 38. These atoms are amenable to precision laser spectroscopy, the results of which can in principle be used to determine the antiproton-to-electron mass ratio and to constrain the equality between the antiproton and proton charges and masses. Here we report two-photon spectroscopy of antiprotonic helium, in which two antiprotonic helium isotopes are irradiated by two counter-propagating laser beams. This excites nonlinear, two-photon transitions of the antiproton of the type (n,l) -> (n-2, l-2) at deep-ultraviolet wave-lengths (139.8, 193.0 and 197.0 nm), which partly cancel the Doppler broadening of the laser resonance caused by the thermal motion of the atoms. The resulting narrow spectral lines allowed us to measure three transition frequencies with fractional precisions of 2.3–5 parts in 10^9. By comparing the results with three-body quantum electrodynamics calculations, we derived an antiproton-to-electron mass ratio of 1,836.1526736(23), where the parenthetical error represents one standard deviation. This agrees with the proton-to-electron value known to a similar precision