How did scientist discover the gluon?
The first (and still the best) experimental evidence of gluons was in the form of three-jet events in particle accelerator experiments, the first of which was observed in 1979. Jets are usually produced by the hadronization of quarks; and since quarks are produced in pairs, the third jet must represent an additional particle. Quantum chromodynamics suggests that this extra particle is a high-energy gluon, and this interpretation also explains other features present in three-jet events. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_jet_event Gluons do not interact directly with protons or other hadrons. Instead, they mediate strong-force interactions between quarks, binding quarks together to form hadrons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluon Free gluons have not yet been detected, but high-energy particle collisions have produced what is believed to be a quark-gluon plasma. The heat and pressure from the collision (conditions similar to those a few microseconds after the Big Bang) “melt” the collid
