Hadrons Gone Wild! Physicists Head to Rio to Get Subatomic

August 19, 2005

You just never know what will happen when a bunch of quarks get together. But for a hadron physicist like Ted Barnes, it’s worth finding out. In fact, Dr. Barnes will give a summation when scientists gather to discuss that very topic.

Hadrons are particles made up of quarks (the building block of all matter) and gluons, which hold them together. Studying these subatomic particles helps explain the laws that atoms follow.

For 20 years scientists who study hadrons have held a major biennial conference to tackle topics like quarkonia, baryons, and heavy ion collisions. HADRON05, the next installment, is scheduled for August 21-26 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fisicas is organizing the meeting.

Dr. Barnes, who holds a joint faculty appointment between the UT Physics Department and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been involved with the conference for years. He delivered a plenary talk at the 2003 meeting and this August will reprise an earlier role.

“I have been asked to act as conference summary speaker … a role I earlier filled for the 2001 HADRON meeting in Serpukhov, Russia,” he said.

Dr. Barnes is an active participant in the international hadron community. In fact, the American Physical Society cited his “work on hybrid and exotic hadrons and his contributions to hadron spectroscopy” when they elected him as a Fellow in 2003. Last fall he chaired the first meeting of the APS Topical Group on Hadron Physics at Fermilab near Chicago. He also collaborates with high-energy, nuclear, and condensed matter physicists.

More information on the HADRON05 Conference is available on the Web at: http://www.cbpf.br/~hadron05/