Constituent-quarks are the keystones of a large class of shell-model-like descriptions of the spectrum and interactions of hadrons. A recent highlight of contemporary nuclear physics research is an elucidation of the connection between these idealised degrees of freedom and the current-quarks that appear in quantum chromodynamics, the relativistic quantum field theory of strong interactions. The dynamical process responsible is the most effective mass-generating mechanism in the Standard-Model of particle physics. For light-quarks it dwarfs the Higgs-mechanism. I will explain this effect, and outline its consequences for the structure and properties of pions and nucleons, the basic elements of nuclear physics.
This lecture is sponsored by the collaborative research initiative "Advancing Nuclear Theory for a Rare Isotope Accelerator: Nuclear Structure and Reactions for Astrophysics," a joint effort of the University of Notre Dame and Argonne National Laboratory.