- #1
artis
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- 976
I always read that the weight of the protons and neutrons forming a nucleus is less than the weight of them if counted as standalone particles, the difference being the "mass defect" which goes into the binding energy to hold the nucleus together.
So I have two questions.
1) The elementary particle for the strong interaction being the gluon is responsible for the strong force, the strong force is coming from each nucleon within a nucleus, so if I say separate these nucleons far apart, do they still "exert" the same amount of strong force? Analogous to how a charged particle has the same strength E field around it whether being alone or close to other particles?
2) Now if there is a "mass defect" between individual protons and neutrons and the same amount of protons and neutrons in a nucleus then how does this mass defect change with distance, in other words at which point or how far do the nucleons need to be separated in order for them to change their mass as the result of less binding energy, how does this weight vs binding energy scale with distance? Does it happen gradually or is there a sharp boundary in terms of distance after which each nucleon "gets back" it's full weight?3) if composite particles like protons and neutrons have the strong force always "with them" then are the gluons always emitted from them and if so do they compare to virtual photons of a static charge in the EM field or actual photons of a changing EM field? Can a particle like a proton lose energy by this strong force field if being standalone?
So I have two questions.
1) The elementary particle for the strong interaction being the gluon is responsible for the strong force, the strong force is coming from each nucleon within a nucleus, so if I say separate these nucleons far apart, do they still "exert" the same amount of strong force? Analogous to how a charged particle has the same strength E field around it whether being alone or close to other particles?
2) Now if there is a "mass defect" between individual protons and neutrons and the same amount of protons and neutrons in a nucleus then how does this mass defect change with distance, in other words at which point or how far do the nucleons need to be separated in order for them to change their mass as the result of less binding energy, how does this weight vs binding energy scale with distance? Does it happen gradually or is there a sharp boundary in terms of distance after which each nucleon "gets back" it's full weight?3) if composite particles like protons and neutrons have the strong force always "with them" then are the gluons always emitted from them and if so do they compare to virtual photons of a static charge in the EM field or actual photons of a changing EM field? Can a particle like a proton lose energy by this strong force field if being standalone?