Nuclear Physics Seminars

The spin of the proton is a source of great mystery: how do the spins and other angular momentum of gluons and quarks add up to the spin of the proton? The so called 'spin puzzle' came up because the measurement of the valence quarks spin (EMC experiment at CERN, 1987) was found to be way smaller than the expected 0.5 (spin of the proton). My research focusses on the theory describing the component of angular momentum generated by motion of quarks and gluons (partons). This includes working with different types of distribution functions such as the regular Parton Distribution Functions, Generalised Parton Distribution Functions and Transverse Momentum Distributions. In my talk, I will highlight how we describe partonic angular momentum using these distributions and how we approach the problem of measuring it experimentally.