RE: Do All Protons Have the Same Number of Quarks?
September 29, 2017 at 5:02 pm
(This post was last modified: September 29, 2017 at 5:38 pm by Alex K.)
Hi!
Yes and no - there are three quarks which make up its fixed inventory, but on top of that, quark-antiquark pairs pop in and out of existence constantly. The net number if you take the difference of quarks and antiquarks is exactly 3 though.
Wjy 3 exactly? Because the strong force is so strong, stable isolated particles need to be color neutral to exist. The symmetries of the strong force have the property that it is not possibe for 4 or 5 quarks to be color charge neutral. This can be explained by the mathematical structure of the strong interactions which are governed by an SU(3) symmetry group - if you want to get technical.
Yes and no - there are three quarks which make up its fixed inventory, but on top of that, quark-antiquark pairs pop in and out of existence constantly. The net number if you take the difference of quarks and antiquarks is exactly 3 though.
Wjy 3 exactly? Because the strong force is so strong, stable isolated particles need to be color neutral to exist. The symmetries of the strong force have the property that it is not possibe for 4 or 5 quarks to be color charge neutral. This can be explained by the mathematical structure of the strong interactions which are governed by an SU(3) symmetry group - if you want to get technical.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
