Scale: 10^-17 meters = 10 am = 10 attometers

Quarks and Gluons

In the Standard Theory, gluons are the force particle that transmits the strong force between quarks, analogous to photons being emitted and absorbed by electrons in the electromagnetic force felt by electrically charged particles. Gluons provide the glue that binds the three quarks inside protons and neutrons.

Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory, originally developed by Murray Gell-Mann, that describes the strong force. Gluons carry the color charge of the strong interaction. Quarks carry three types of color charge: red, green, and blue. Antiquarks also have three types of color charge: antired, antigreen, and antiblue. Gluons come in eight color states and quark/gluon interactions require possible particles to be color neutral. For example, a three-quark proton (baryon) can be made up of a red upquark, a blue upquark, and a green downquark, along with the interacting and mediating gluons, resulting in a color neutral state. Two-quark particles are also possible, such as a red-antired state (meson).