Over the past century, physicists have pieced together the basic building blocks of the universe like a giant jigsaw puzzle, one experiment at a time, inventing highly advanced instruments like Michigan State University’s National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory and Facility for Rare Isotope Beams to test their theories and dig deeper into subatomic world.

Research conducted by Huey-Wen Lin, an associate professor with joint appointments in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Department of Computational Mathematics, Science and Engineering in the MSU College of Natural Science, has just provided a major piece of the puzzle. For the first time, Lin used advanced calculations in lattice quantum chromodynamics, or lattice QCD, to directly measure the momentum of quarks inside the center of an atom and to generate three-dimensional images of the proton’s structure.

Her results were recently published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

To read more about Lin's research, visit the College of Natural Science website.