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Particle Physics

A Cascade Model for the Proton Spin Decomposition

DOI
10.5281/zenodo.18717070
Read full paper on Zenodo →

The proton spin puzzle: deep inelastic scattering shows that quarks carry only about 30% of the proton's spin. The remainder must come from gluons and orbital angular momentum — but the precise decomposition is experimentally and theoretically contested. Pentagon Physics models proton spin as a cascade through the 600-cell's eigenmode structure, with the golden partition distributing angular momentum between the three phases. The cascade model predicts the spin decomposition fractions from the φ-partition without free parameters.

\[ S_p = \frac{1}{2} = S_\text{confined} + S_\text{orbital} + S_\text{gauge}, \quad \text{ratios} \sim \varphi^{-n} \]
Key Result
Proton spin decomposition from φ-cascade model
Precision
Consistent with EMC/COMPASS measurements