Latest Challenges Faced In Nuclear Physics

Nowadays, after many years of intense research, we know that nuclei are made of positively charged protons and neutral neutrons, together called “nucleons.” Nucleons themselves are also not structure less particles, but are made of quarks, bound together by the strong force, mediated by the gluons. Quarks and gluons are the degrees of freedom to be used when nuclei are investigated with high-energy probes (i.e., with energies higher than the nucleon mass itself). Neutrons in motion are the starting point for everything that happens in a nuclear reactor.