confinement

quarks

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June 24, 2026

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The strong force binds quarks together to form protons and neutrons. Quarks are fundamental particles with fractional electric charges, and they possess a property called "color" which is the source of the strong force. This force is mediated by gluons, which also carry color charge.12

A key aspect of the strong force is confinement, meaning quarks are never observed in isolation. If enough energy is applied to separate quarks, new quark-antiquark pairs are created instead. Conversely, when quarks are very close, the strong force weakens, a phenomenon known as asymptotic freedom.1234

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strong force
…baryons, a phenomenon known as confinement. At distances comparable to the diameter of a proton, the strong interaction between quarks is about 100 times greater than the electromagnetic interaction. At smaller distances, however, the strong force between quarks becomes weaker, and the quarks begin to behave like independent particles, an…
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…baryons, a phenomenon known as confinement. At distances comparable to the diameter of a proton, the strong interaction between quarks is about 100 times greater than the electromagnetic interaction. At smaller distances, however, the strong force between quarks becomes weaker, and the quarks begin to behave like independent particles, an…
Read More