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Colloquium: Glimpsing Color in the World of Black and White

Glimpsing color in a world of black and white

Protons, neutrons and all the many other strongly interacting subnuclear particles, known as hadrons, are made of quarks and gluons. These fundamental constituents are held together by a color force described by quantum chromodynamics (QCD). A detailed understanding of how the strong coupling regime of QCD, which is responsible for confinement and dynamical chiral symmetry breaking, determines the spectrum and structure of hadrons will be outlined. Such studies, both experimental and theoretical, color in the picture of strong dynamics. What we know now and the glimpses to come from accelerator facilities like that at Jefferson Lab will be described.