Shohini Bhattacharya, a physicist in Brookhaven Lab's nuclear theory group and the RIKEN BNL Research Center (RBRC), helped to develop a new formalism that gives access to the distribution of quarks and gluons within a proton. The group used this approach to predict the spatial distributions of charges, momentum, and other properties of "up" and "down" quarks within protons.
Welcome to the Bhattacharya group
I aim to explore the multi-dimensional partonic structure of hadrons, driven by a deep understanding of the scientific objectives of the EIC (Electron–Ion Collider). My research focuses on perturbative QCD (Quantum Chromodynamics), which helps establish the theoretical framework of scattering processes, and its impact on phenomenology, which connects theory and experimental data by making testable predictions, thereby bridging the two. In simpler terms, I help build the theoretical ‘blueprints’ that experiments rely on to make sense of the complex data they collect. Moreover, my work involves collaboration with experts in lattice QCD – a numerical method used to study quarks and gluons within a discretized spacetime framework – and experimental physics, emphasizing the importance of a strong connection between both analytical and numerical theories and experiments.
Latest News
January 2026
We are excited to announce that David’s first research paper is out!
In this work, David identifies a new class of observables that are sensitive to gluon orbital angular momentum and spin–orbit correlations, providing powerful tools for future measurements at the upcoming Electron–Ion Collider (EIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. This result opens a promising pathway toward unraveling the role of gluons in the proton’s spin structure.