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- Protons that occupy the nucleus of an atom are all positively charged particles. Some like electric charges are bound up in a very small space. “ Like charges” repel each other. Right! But, there are other particles in the nucleus called “ Gluons” that are stronger than the Electromagnetic Forces and that are holding the protons tightly together, against their will.
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- We know that protons and neutrons themselves are made up of smaller particles called “ Quarks” Each has 3 Quarks with a -1/3 or + 2/3 electromagnetic charge. By adding 3 Quarks together you can sum to +1 or to zero, a proton or a neutron charge.
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- Gluons are what is holding the Quarks together inside the protons and neutrons. Together all particles made up of Quarks and Anti-Quarks are called “ Hadrons”. I will use the more familiar term “ protons” for this review to represent this family of Hadron particles.
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- How Gluons interact with Quarks to give protons their properties and observed behaviors has not been fully understood by physics.
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- The mass of the individual Quarks and Gluons has been determined, however, when the mass is summed up to create a proton the sum falls short of the total mass of the proton. We are mysteriously missing some mass?
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- How do Gluons create their binding energy to hold Quarks together? How does this binding energy also hold Protons together?
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- Quarks spin inside the nucleus to result in the total quantity spin of the proton. The spins measured always fall short of the total quantity spin for the proton?
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- To get down to the real fundamentals in Physics, how do particles have mass in the first place?
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- We believe that protons and electrons have mass due to their interaction with the Higgs Field. This Field pervades all space. It is like “ syrup” that particles move through. The mass or inertia of every particle is the degree of interaction of the particle with this “syrup-like” field.
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- However the Higgs Field does not explain the mass of Quarks either. A proton’s mass is 98% greater than the sum of the mass of the 3 Quarks. Gluons are massless, like Photons. But, somehow Gluons are creating this additional mass inside the proton?
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-Einstein’s equation , E = mc^2, tell us that energy and mass are two forms of the same thing. The proportional difference is E/m = c^2, the speed of light squared, or 90,000,000,000,000,000 meters^2 / seconds^2. So, the challenge reduces to calculating the net energy of the Gluons to calculate the total mass of the proton.
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- The mass of the proton is 1.167252*10^-27 kilograms.
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- Energy can be the energy of motion. Gluons do not exist as “ free particles”. It is difficult to measure their motion as an element of this total energy.
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- The energy must lie in the “ binding force”. It has a name, the Strong Nuclear Force”. The Strong Force binds the Quarks inside the protons and it binds the protons inside the nucleus.
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- The Gluon is believed to be a “ force carrier” particle for the Strong Force. Just as the “Photon” is the force carrier for the Electromagnetic Force.
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- The strange property of the Strong Force is that the distance range of the force is inversely proportional to the mass of the forcer carrier. The Electromagnetic Force has an infinite range while the Strong Force is limited to the range inside the nucleus of the atom. Photons with infinite range are massless. Gluons with the opposite property should be very massive, yet, they too appear to be massless.
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- The Gluon also appears to have greater pulling force the farther away it gets. This force between Quarks separated by the size of a proton is calculated to be 16 metric tons. The proton has a diameter of 0.000,000,000,000,841,84 centimeters ( 0.84184&10^-15 meters). Past that diameter the force snaps to zero.
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- The mystery remains has to how just past that diameter the force appears to stop.
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- The mathematics developed to characterize the Strong Force is called “ Quantum Chromodynamics ( QCD). The “ Chromo” part of the name refers to “ colors”. Physicists us colors to describe how Quarks pass Gluons back and forth, how Gluons exchange Gluons, how Quark-Anti-Quarks turn into a single Gluon, etc. How these colored forces cancel out at the proton boundary remains a mystery.
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- Somehow a force field exists that limit’s the amount of Gluons that can build up inside a force field that holds protons together. Some 8th grader today is going to solve this problem in the future.
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- Protons also spin and that represents rotational energy. Experiments have calculated Quark’s spin to represent 30% of the proton’s energy. Gluon’s spin represents 20%. 50% of the missing spin energy is still a mystery?
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- Physicists believe, and have some evidence, that Quark-Gluon plasma existed in the early Universe, at a temperature of 4 trillion degrees Celsius.
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- To figure out what really goes on inside a proton Physicists need a “femtoscope”, a “ microscope” that has a resolution of 1,000th the radius of a proton. Hard to believe but physicists are designing an Electron-ion Collider, smashing electrons and lead nuclei (ions) together at near light speeds, to do just that.
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- Stay tuned, there is still more to learn, how do Gluons glue?
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