colour
Quick Summary
In quantum chromodynamics (QCD), quarks possess a property called "color charge," analogous to electric charge. This color charge is the source of the strong force that binds quarks together. There are three types of color charge: red, green, and blue, and their antiparticles. Quarks interact by exchanging gluons, which are force-carrying particles that also carry color charge.
Particles are "color-neutral" in two ways:
* Baryons (like protons and neutrons) are composed of three quarks, each with a different color (red, green, and blue), which combine to form a neutral object.
* Mesons are made of a quark and an antiquark, where the antiquark's anticolor cancels the quark's color, resulting in a neutral particle.
This color confinement means that free quarks and gluons are not observed; they are always bound within color-neutral particles.1234
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