What keeps protons together in the nucleus?

[devanlevin]

what causes the protons inside the atoms nucleus to stay together(next to one another), positive repels positive, therefore they should repel each other,

 

[mgb_phys]

The strong nuclear force - they do repel each other, that's why it has to be a strong force!

Although it's more correct to think of the forces between the quarks that make up protons, for details search for Quantum chromodynamics (QCD)

 

[Meir Achuz]

what causes the protons inside the atoms nucleus to stay together(next to one another), positive repels positive, therefore they should repel each other,

That's why there are neutrons in the nucleus. The nuclear force is short ranged so that the long range Coulomb force would repel the protons, but the neutrons provide an attractive force toholdd the nucleus together.

 

[mathman]

That's why there are neutrons in the nucleus. The nuclear force is short ranged so that the long range Coulomb force would repel the protons, but the neutrons provide an attractive force toholdd the nucleus together.

The strong force affects neutrons and protons. The carriers of this force are gluons which work on quarks, leading to the force needed to hold nucleus together.

 

[Gokul43201]

what causes the protons inside the atoms nucleus to stay together(next to one another), positive repels positive, therefore they should repel each other,

What folks are saying is that there are, in fact, two (for the sake of this discussion) kinds of forces acting between the protons.

This first is the familiar Coulomb force which you are familiar with: this makes the protons want to fly away from each other.

The second is an attractive force that counteracts this repulsion, and is known as the (residual) strong nuclear force. It is this force that helps keep the nucleus intact against the repulsion from the Coulomb force.