Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) and Hadron Physics

Since its birth more than twenty years ago, QCD has evolved from a potential candidate for a theory of strong interactions to an indispensable tool to describe scattering and decay processes that involve quarks and gluons. At the same time many interesting dynamical questions remain to be answered at the interface of perturbative and nonperturbative QCD. Institute researchers have made important contributions to both areas.

An example for perturbative studies is the tree level calculation of scattering processes involving many colored partons, which are essential for background studies to almost all new physics signals at hadron colliders. Closer to the nonperturbative regime and the study of strong interaction effects in their own right is the development of methods to extract information on proton or photon structure functions. Studies of models for diffractive processes or rapidity gaps, chiral perturbation theory, and analysis of baryon magnetic moments are examples of our current investigations of QCD dynamics.