Talk:Strong interaction

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the gluon the quanta of the strong force? Thus the strong force wouldn't bind gluons, but it binds the other particles via gluons.

See the last paragraph: the strong force is special in that the mediating particles have color themselves, and so bind to one another. This effect is what makes the strong force strong - it actually increases with distance. Actually, the W bosons have weak charge, but the self-binding is minimal because they are very massive and thus short-ranged.

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This article ought to treat the strong force and the rest of its surrounding theory as theory rather than fact. Ezra Wax 14:48, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Also the analogy of a rubber band breaking to illustrate the formation of new quarks is a poor one. Anyone who has pulled a rubber band apart knows it almost *always* breaks at one point and so the result of breaking a rubber band is almost always one linear piece of rubber and in fact NO rubber bands result from breaking one rubber band. Even in the rare instances where the rubber band breaks at two points the result is two linear pieces of rubber and still no rubber bands have been created, only destroyed. The analogy is not just poor it seems, but rather is a failed analogy. Scientists getting sloppy with words as it were. It does not help to illustrate the topic but only generates misleading connections.

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I think we should nor mix the strong interaction and the nuclear interaction, referred in this article as residual strong force which is not a term used by the people in the field. Actually, nuclear interactions (theoretically mediated by mesons) deserves an own article which I would like to write if I have time. --Philipum 13:33, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

If the terms "residual" and "fundamental" are not be used in the field, according to Philipum, (I thought they were, but he might know better...), then we will remove them. However, I feel that his word choice is at times vague. Excessive use of the word "nuclear", and over-long sentences... Maybe we should substitute the correct terms for "residual" and "fundamental" but leave the structure of the paragraph basically the same. Rmrfstar 18:14, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

OK, maybe residual force is used by particle physicists (high-energy physics at the GeV level) who may not make any difference between strong and nuclear force. But nuclear physicists (physics of nuclei at the MeV level where QCD can not be applied but effective meson theories are applied instead) use the term nuclear interaction. I will try to make it clear. Feel free to change my changes and we will see what it becomes. --Philipum 08:45, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

quark-gluon plasma

I think that nobody has got evident observation of quark-gluon plasmas yet. Thus, it is still an hypothetical state of matter and I propose to be more careful when saying that they are studied or the the interaction is modifyed etc. --Philipum 09:22, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

gluon to gluon

i got a question: since gluons have color charge, does that mean gluons emit gluons from themselves to other gluons? otherwise there'll be no force between them. but if its like that then the strong fore is too hard for the human mind!? even for mesons!!! i cant even start to picture the exchange for baryons

Yes, they do. It makes things a bit harder, particularly in the strong-coupling limit, but computerized techniques can handle the situation pretty well. -- Xerxes 19:01, 2005 Jun 13 (UTC)

Waffle

Wouldn't it be more helpful to primarily describe the process that occurs in nuclear interactions, rather than go on about its history and other relatively useless information for the bulk of the article? This article does not remotely explain what it is or what it does. All this article does is bandy about lofty terms relating to quarks and particle physics, but nowhere does it provide an adaquate explanation of the topic. An article about strong force/strong interaction should start with "The force that binds the elements of the nucleus. The interaction involves whatever changing into whatever, and exhanging whatever, where the initial particles are whatever and the products are whatever", and the information that would easily describe the force would be supplied.

I don't like to respond to anonymous comments, but this is constructive.

Since there are detailed pages on quantum chromodynamics on one hand and the nuclear force on the other, the purpose of this article is not mainly physics, but to explain why both subjects are called strong interactions. Why is it an article and not a redirect? Because other articles refer to strong interaction in either senses of the phrase (radioactive decay and grand unified theory both link here), and one needs a bit of an explanation about the two contexts. The first para sets out the context, the remainder gives a structure to related articles. Bambaiah 06:19, Jun 15, 2005 (UTC)