What is the strong nuclear force?
The strong nuclear force, also known as the strong interaction, is the strongest force in the universe, 1038 times stronger than gravity and 100 times stronger than the electromagnetic force. The only catch is that it only operates on length-scales of the atomic nucleus, rapidly dropping off for longer distances. The strong nuclear force is what is liberated during nuclear reactions, of the sort that take place in the Sun, nuclear power plants, and nuclear bombs. The strong force is described by the laws of quantum chromodynamics, part of the Standard Model of particle physics, which was developed in the 1970s. The 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to David Politzer, Frank Wilczek and David Gross. The strong force does not actually occur directly between protons and neutrons in the nucleus, but in the smaller quarks making them up. The force is mediated by fundamental particles called gluons, named for the way they glue quarks together. Each proton or neutron is composed of three
In addition to holding protons and neutrons together, it is the residual strong force that binds atomic nuclei together. Through the phenomenon of mass deficit, the nucleons (the protons and neutrons that make up a nucleus) each give up a small amount of their mass, and this is converted into nuclear binding energy. It is this nuclear binding energy, this residual strong force, that overcomes the electrostatic repulsion of the positively charged protons to give give stability to atomic nuclei (with the exception of hydrogen-1). Use the links below for more information.
The strong force acts between quarks to form hadrons. The nucleus of an atom is hold together on account of residual strong force, i.e. by quarks of neighbouring neutrons and protons interacting with each other. Quarks have an electromagnetic charge and another property that is called colour charge, they come in three different colour charges. The carrier particles of the strong nuclear force are called gluons. In contrast to photons, gluons have a colour charge, while composite particles like hadrons have no colour charge.
