Emergence of Hadron Mass from Experiments at High Luminosity Facilities

Dear Colleagues,

Experiments at facilities with high luminosity and large‑acceptance detection systems open new opportunities to explore the structure of the ground and excited states of the nucleon (N*) and their emergence from QCD. Analyses of the experimental results within QCD‑connected functional continuum Schwinger methods have shown a promising path toward understanding the strong interaction dynamics that underlie the emergence of more than 98% of hadron mass. This addresses one of the major open problems in the Standard Model concerning the nature of the dominant part of hadron mass in connection with dynamical chiral symmetry breaking and quark–gluon confinement. This Topical Collection provides a review of advances in experimental studies of N* structure, together with investigations of ground‑state nucleon structure. It also reviews progress and new insights into the emergence of hadron structure expected from experiments at upcoming high‑luminosity facilities. Another key component of this Topical Collection is the progress achieved within QCD‑connected theoretical approaches and quark models in interpreting experimental data and guiding future experiments. Strengthening synergy among experiments, phenomenology, and hadron structure theory both in the meson and baryon sectors—supported by novel approaches in the development of AI and machine‑learning techniques—toward a deeper understanding of the generation of hadron mass and structure represents the central focus of this Topical Collection.

Prof. Dr. Victor I. Mokeev
Prof. Dr. Craig Roberts
Dr. Daniel S. Carman
Collection Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the collection website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Symmetry is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.