The “Glue” Inside Protons May Hold the Secret to Matter’s Identity

A hidden Y-shaped junction of gluons inside protons may carry one of matter’s most fundamental properties, challenging a decades-old textbook assumption. New findings from the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) suggest that gluons, the particles that act like glue between quarks inside protons, may play a much bigger role in preserving [...]