I Why do the fundamental forces have different ranges?

AI Thread Summary
Gravity and electromagnetism have infinite ranges due to their massless carriers, the graviton and photon, respectively, while the strong nuclear force behaves differently despite its carrier, the gluon, also being theoretically massless. The strong force's unique properties arise from gluons interacting with themselves, leading to quark confinement and the phenomenon of color charge screening. As a result, the strong force transitions from attractive to repulsive and ultimately becomes nonexistent at larger distances. Additionally, the residual strong force, mediated by massive pions, contributes to its short range. Understanding these distinctions is crucial for comprehending the fundamental forces in physics.
Surya97
Messages
46
Reaction score
4
How come gravity and electromagnetism have an infinite range, while the strong nuclear force dies out quickly? I understand that the weak force's bosons, the W+, W- and Z (neutral), have relatively large mass, and decay quickly, while the photon and the graviton (theoretical carrier of gravity) both have zero mass (we have now proved the existence of gravitational waves), giving both an infinite range. However, the strong force's carrier, the gluon, also theoretically has zero mass (experimentally, the maximum mass bound is very low). So how come the strong force turns from attractive to repulsive to nonexistent after the distance is increased (QCD), rather than going on forever?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Unlike photons (and presumably gravitons), gluons interact with themselves. This leads to quark confinement and screening of colour charge. A baryon is color neutral just as atom is electrically neutral despite its charged constituents. There is a residual strong force that may be thought of as mediated by pions. This has a short range due to pions being massive.
 
  • Like
Likes Surya97
Thread 'Question about pressure of a liquid'
I am looking at pressure in liquids and I am testing my idea. The vertical tube is 100m, the contraption is filled with water. The vertical tube is very thin(maybe 1mm^2 cross section). The area of the base is ~100m^2. Will he top half be launched in the air if suddenly it cracked?- assuming its light enough. I want to test my idea that if I had a thin long ruber tube that I lifted up, then the pressure at "red lines" will be high and that the $force = pressure * area$ would be massive...
I feel it should be solvable we just need to find a perfect pattern, and there will be a general pattern since the forces acting are based on a single function, so..... you can't actually say it is unsolvable right? Cause imaging 3 bodies actually existed somwhere in this universe then nature isn't gonna wait till we predict it! And yea I have checked in many places that tiny changes cause large changes so it becomes chaos........ but still I just can't accept that it is impossible to solve...

Similar threads

Replies
23
Views
3K
Replies
2
Views
2K
Replies
9
Views
2K
Replies
10
Views
3K
Replies
6
Views
2K
Replies
10
Views
3K
Back
Top