First coherent picture of atomic nucleus structure

Physicists from IFJ PAN used data from high-energy collisions, like those at CERN’s LHC, to study the structure of atomic nuclei. They focused on Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs), which describe how quarks and gluons are organized inside protons and neutrons. Understanding these distributions helps predict particle behavior in collisions. Their research combined traditional nuclear models, which look at low-energy interactions of protons and neutrons, with PDFs to analyze 18 different atomic nuclei.