https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-024-13702-9
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Search for baryon junctions in e+A collisions at the electron ion collider
1
Department of Chemistry, The State University of New York, 11794, Stony Brook, NY, USA
2
Center for Frontiers in Nuclear Science at the State University of New York, 11794, Stony Brook, NY, USA
3
Department of Physics, University of Tennessee, 37996, Knoxville, TN, USA
4
Department of Physics, Stony Brook University, 11794, Stony Brook, NY, USA
5
Physics Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, 11973, Upton, NY, USA
6
Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS, USA
7
Physics Department, Kent State University, 44242, Kent, OH, USA
Received:
15
August
2024
Accepted:
6
December
2024
Published online:
27
December
2024
Constituent quarks in a nucleon are the essential elements in the standard “quark model” associated with the electric charge, spin, mass, and baryon number of a nucleon. Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) describes nucleon as a composite object containing current quarks (valence quarks and sea (anti-)quarks) and gluons. These subatomic elements and their interactions are known to contribute in complex ways to the overall nucleon spin and mass. In the early development of QCD theory in the 1970s, an alternative hypothesis postulated that the baryon number might manifest itself through a non-perturbative configuration of gluon fields forming a Y-shaped topology known as the gluon junction. In this work, we propose to test such hypothesis by measuring (i) the Regge intercept of the net-baryon distributions for e+(p)Au collisions, (ii) baryon and charge transport in the isobaric ratio between e+Ru and e+Zr collisions, and (iii) target flavor dependence of proton and antiproton yields at large rapidity, transported from the hydrogen and deuterium targets in 
(d) collisions. Our study indicates that these measurements at the EIC can help determine what carries the baryon number.
© The Author(s) 2024
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Funded by SCOAP3.
