Helo, I am just wondering about some info I foind on the web.

[duskwood100]

I am wondering what your thoughts about this are?
http://deskarati.com/2012/10/18/there-are-three-quarks-in-a-proton-wrong/
http://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/largehadroncolliderfaq/whats-a-proton-anyway/
I am really skeptical and have very little background in physics.
I would love some serious arguments for and against it.

 

[Simon Bridge]

Welcome to PF;
The extra quark-antiquark pairs are mesons basically mediating the strong nuclear force... holding the proton together. The article makes a bit of a meal out of it. No doubt a more complete description is coming...

 

[duskwood100]

Does this mean that mesons are in fact what makes the nucleus stable?
I thought the strong force were what kept the nucleus stable @.@
Now I am seriously confused!
So let's say we have these unstable mesons inside the nucleus, being neutralized by the strong force. Does that mean we have like a zillion tiny explosions inside the nucleus all the time? how does this explain the rise in strong force when attempting to free the quarks?
Ain't mesons the particle carrying the strong force?
And what exactly are attempting to break the nucleus apart?

and ty, happy to be here:)

 

[Simon Bridge]

The meson can act as mediators for the strong nuclear force.
Nuclei are more complicated but sure - exchange of mesons between nucleons help keep them stable ... particularly keeping the neutron stable.

You don't get zillions of tiny explosions in the nucleus - these are QM interactions.

I'm being very simplistic of course, as is the article.
It won't cover all the phenomena in detail. You'll need to read around the topic.

 

[duskwood100]

Could you please provide some links to more information. It would be much appreciated:)
Oh yea ofc the mesons are the carriers of strong force, haha. My bad.
I just find it strange that it contains zillions of mesons. I am looking into the QM interactions now.
So what exactly keep these zillion mesons stable xD?
From what I have read, mesons are highly unstable.

 

[Simon Bridge]

Actually, wikipedia has some nice animations of nucleons exchanging mesons.
You should just google around the subject of mesons - say: neutral pions.

 

[kith]

Your thread belongs to the High Energy, Nuclear and Particle Physics forum. Maybe a mentor can move it?

Bound states of particles can be characterized by a set of quantum numbers. If I measure the corresponding observables for the proton, I get values which agree with the quark model, which states that the proton is a bound state of three so-called valence quarks. So it is meaningful to talk about the proton as a state of three quarks.

Strasser stresses the importance of vacuum fluctuations, which are almost negligible for the hydrogen atom, but contribute a lot to the mass of the proton. They lead to the presence of virtual gluons and quark-antiquark-pairs (the so-called sea quarks). So essentially he is right but I think his wording is too strong. The quark model is still a useful model.

Maybe this link is helpful:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark#Interacting_quarks

@Simon:
The force carrier of the strong force are gluons, not mesons. I don't think that mesons play a role within hadrons. As in your example, they occur in models for the nuclear force. This force acts between nucleons/hadrons and is a remnant of the strong force between the particles which constitute the hadrons (similar to the van-der-Waals interaction between atoms).

 

[Simon Bridge]

Neutral pions are important for the low energy properties of the strong nuclear interaction.
Yes - the fundamental mediator is the gluon.