- #1
jeebs
- 325
- 4
My understanding of colour so far is that if we had, say, a baryon with quark content uuu, we would need to invoke a new quantum number that would allow each quark not to be in the same quantum state to avoid violating the Pauli principle.
Now apparently this new quantum number is called colour charge, and is the source of the strong interaction in the way that electric charge is for electromagnetism. Two questions:
Why has it been decided that this thing we call colour is responsible for generating an attractive potential? Is it just that we do not assign colour to anything that doesn't involve quarks, and quarks are the only ones who participate in the strong interaction, so the two must be related?
Does the strength of the strong interaction vary between which quarks are doing the interacting, for example, does red and blue attract stronger than red and green etc?
Now apparently this new quantum number is called colour charge, and is the source of the strong interaction in the way that electric charge is for electromagnetism. Two questions:
Why has it been decided that this thing we call colour is responsible for generating an attractive potential? Is it just that we do not assign colour to anything that doesn't involve quarks, and quarks are the only ones who participate in the strong interaction, so the two must be related?
Does the strength of the strong interaction vary between which quarks are doing the interacting, for example, does red and blue attract stronger than red and green etc?