How can Sub-Atomic Particles be Visualized?

Question

Can you see or accurately visualise sub atomic particles or are they known only by maths and/or inference?

What is your definition of visualize? If we draw something using mathematical equations, isn't it a visual representation? Do you want to see it under light? Mind it, whatever techniques we use to visualize subatomic particles do actually use mathematical equations to draw something on computer. — Earth is a Spoon, Dec 07 '12 at 04:17

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 07 '12 at 03:33

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You can see a nucleus and the nucleus of a hydrogen atom is a proton which is the same. You can't see below that at least with a source of neutrons that ISIS produce, but you can see down to the level of the proton.

edited Dec 07 '12 at 03:33

dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten

86,062

answered Dec 07 '12 at 02:56

Vera Rubin

159

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The limit at ISIS is basically set by the beam energies and the strong nature of the neutron--nucleon interaction, higher energy facilities can problem finer distance scales. – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Dec 07 '12 at 03:34

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:39

We can image the sub-structure of nucleons by a number of different techniques involving high energy scattering. The results are generally presented in terms of "parton distribution functions" or "structure functions".

One such experiment that I had some small relationship with (though not enough to be an author) was NuSea (E866) at Fermilab in the mid 1990s, which used muon Drell-Yan as the a probe to image the QCD sea in particular.

How can Sub-Atomic Particles be Visualized?

2 Answers2