A number of theorists are pursuing the possibility of doing calculations involving strong nuclear forces by representing space-time as a lattice of distinct points, and using computers operating in parallel to keep track of the value of the fields at each point. It is hoped but not certain that the properties of nuclei could be deduced from the principles of quantum chromodynamics. So far it has not been possible even to calculate the masses of the proton and neutron, of which nuclei are composed(dft285)
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Chromatic processes are more complicated than their electromagnetic counterparts, in part, because there are three colors as against a single type of electric charge; this leads to a total of eight distinct types of gluon compared to a single species of photon(gnp155)
(Edited by Darkseid01)
QCD would propose a new breed of messenger particles, gluons, to cement quarks together(gp302)
(Edited by Darkseid01)
QCD says that any quark is free to change its color, independently of all the other quarks, and does so by emitting a gluon, which is promptly absorbed by another quark, which suffers a color change of exactly the kind required to cancel out the change in the first quark, and keep the hadron colorless. All hadrons are always colorless, even though the quarks within them may be undergoing kaleidoscopic changes of color every instant. Because the gluons carry color, their behavior is very different from that of photons, which do not carry charge and do not interact with one another. Gluons do interact with each other even while they are in the process of carrying the force from one quark to another. Perhaps the strangest result of this is that although the 'strong' force is actually quite weak for a short distance (inside the proton, for example), the gluon interactions make the force stronger at larger distances, so that over a range of 10 to the -13cm it is strong enough to bind protons together in spite of the repulsion between their electric charges(sss139)
QCD has yet to be combined with the electro-weak theory into one Grand Unified Theory, and gravity isn't included at all(sss143)
The crucial feature of QCD that has now been tested by LEP is that gluons can interact with each other at a point, something which photons cannot do(sss145)
(Edited by Darkseid01)
Quarks exchange gluon particles between each other in order to interact. Just as electrons interact by the exchange of photons, so quarks interact through the exchange of gluons. By analogy to the successful theory of quantum electrodynamics, this new theory was called quantum chromodynamics(sstoe82)
(Edited by Darkseid01)
QCD was named by analogy to QED. In QED there are only two electric charges: positive and negative. In QCD there are three color charges: red, blue, and green. This terminology is used to suggest that the only stable combination is white i.e. made of the three primary colors. Actually, even this picture is too specific. Quarks do not have fixed colors or flavors; the color force and the weak nuclear force eventually transform and exchange their attributes. A quark has no individual properties at all; it is caught in a kind quantum dance with its partners, existing only in relationship (W285)
(Edited by Darkseid01)