21 lines
1.2 KiB
HTML
21 lines
1.2 KiB
HTML
<h1>The Strong Interaction</h1>
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<p class="abstract">There must be some kind of force that glues together the quarks in the
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proton, just like the electromagnetic force attaches the electron to
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the atomic nucleus. And like for electromagnetism, there must be
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messenger particle of this force, and also a kind of “charge”, called
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color, that will determine which particles take part in this
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interaction and whether two particles will attract or repel each
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other. This force is very different from electromagnetism: no particle
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that has a color can exist freely, they must be in a bound system. The
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messenger particles of this interaction are called gluons, and they
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themselves carry color, so they cannot exist freely either.</p>
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<p class="abstract">Looking at the proton, we see that there are three
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quarks glued together - unlike in the hydrogen atom, where there are
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only two partners: the proton and the electron. Hence, something must
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be different about this strong, nuclear force, that glues together the
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quarks. There are three different kinds of "charge", as opposed to
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electromagnetism, where there are only two, which we call positive and
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negative. For the strong force, the "charge" is called color.</p>
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