Deep inelastic scattering

<p>In <a href="/facts/Particle_physics/YgIuyj2t">particle physics</a>, deep inelastic scattering is the name given to a process used to probe the insides of <a href="/facts/Hadrons/C0sd1zty">hadrons</a> (particularly the <a href="/facts/Baryons/QFwAUWK2">baryons</a>, such as <a href="/facts/Protons/clCjepXP">protons</a> and <a href="/facts/Neutrons/oRCM1geb">neutrons</a>), using <a href="/facts/Electrons/L0KBo5cW">electrons</a>, <a href="/facts/Muons/BP2fLVIR">muons</a> and <a href="/facts/Neutrinos/yGWVfSg2">neutrinos</a>. It was first attempted in the 1960s and 1970s and provided the first convincing evidence of the reality of <a href="/facts/Quarks/hwuuVkV5">quarks</a>, which up until that point had been considered by many to be a purely mathematical phenomenon. It is an extension of <a href="/facts/Rutherford_scattering/pDrXNfmK">Rutherford scattering</a> to much higher energies of the scattering particle and thus to much finer resolution of the components of the <a href="/facts/Atomic_nucleus/orpIm5Xl">nuclei</a>.
</p><p><a href="/facts/Henry_Way_Kendall/E0j6NDUy">Henry Way Kendall</a>,  <a href="/facts/Jerome_Isaac_Friedman/3Jokd6St">Jerome Isaac Friedman</a> and <a href="/facts/Richard_E._Taylor/49uRlxN0">Richard E. Taylor</a> were joint recipients of the <a href="/facts/Nobel_Prize/3z1Y3oFL">Nobel Prize</a> of 1990 "for their pioneering investigations concerning deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons, which have been of essential importance for the development of the quark model in particle physics."
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Deep inelastic scattering open-in-new

Deep inelastic scattering