Why strong interaction is short-range force?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the nature of the strong interaction as a short-range force, particularly focusing on the role of gluons and the implications of their masslessness. Participants explore various theoretical frameworks and models to explain this phenomenon, including concepts from quantum field theory and particle physics.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested
  • Mathematical reasoning

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants suggest that the strong interaction's short range may be due to the non-linear and/or curved nature of fields near nucleons, proposing a model where nucleons interact like meshing gears.
  • Others argue that the non-abelian nature of gluons, which allows them to interact with themselves, leads to a screening effect at long distances, as described in models like the dual superconducting model.
  • One participant notes that gluons are massless only in a linear approximation and emphasizes the importance of strong coupling in understanding the interaction.
  • Another viewpoint highlights that the masses attributed to gluons and quarks do not determine the range of the force due to confinement, with pions being relevant for determining the force range instead.
  • There is a correction regarding the classification of pions, with participants clarifying that pions are mesons and not leptons, and discussing their mass and implications for the range of the strong interaction.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express multiple competing views regarding the mechanisms behind the short-range nature of the strong interaction, and there is no consensus on a single explanation. Disagreements also arise concerning the classification of pions.

Contextual Notes

Some claims rely on specific theoretical frameworks that may not be universally accepted, and the discussion includes unresolved aspects related to the mathematical treatment of strong interactions and confinement.

magnetar
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Gluon is massless particle ,why strong interaction is short-range force?
 
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There are two explanations.

Those that believe the universe is not discrete (i.e. they believe the there is such a thing as a continuum and a manifold), believe that the fields and dimensions involved are non-linear and/or curved near the nucleons.

i suspect the universe is discrete, and the stong nuclear force is because there is some alteration that occurs in one nucleon when it is near another, such as rotational phase. For example, it might be like tiny gears meshing their teeth when they are close, where the teeth are intervals (what we call gluon exchanges).
 
Because the strong interaction is non-abelian : gluons interact with themselves, and the vacuum screens the interaction at long distances. In the so called "dual superconducting model" or "flux tube" models, the potential grows enough at long distances to create new particles.
 
magnetar said:
Gluon is massless particle ,why strong interaction is short-range force?

They are "masseless" only in a linear approximation. In fact the equations are strongly non-linear so the linear approximation is quite misleading. The interaction cannot be neglected without loss of essential physical effects (strong coupling). See, for example, "Reformulation instead of renormalizations" by Vladimir Kalitvianski (http://arxiv.org/abs/0811.4416).

Bob_for_short.
 
Humanino's answer is correct - the gluons interact with themselves, so you get a different behavior than with photons which don't interact with themselves. As he points out, there are many models of this kind of behavior, but the details shouldn't obscure the main point: because of these self-interactions, the field falls off faster than 1/r2.

You don't need to posit a discrete universe (this behavior occurs without one) and the details of regularization are unimportant in understanding this.
 
magnetar said:
Gluon is massless particle ,why strong interaction is short-range force?

The masses attributed to gluons and quarks cannot be used in the range relationship to predict the range of the force due to a property called confinement. That is. they are always contained within the proton or neutron. know that anything coming out of the nucleon is a quark antiquark pair and not a quark or gluon. It is the pion that is used to determine the range of the force and it's a lepton (still have mass).

Got it!
 
Abbas Sherif said:
. It is the pion that is used to determine the range of the force and it's a lepton (still have mass).

Got it!


No the pion is not a lepton
 
It is pion right and have a mass of 140 Mev and a range of 1.7fm according to Meson Theory.But they are not leptons intead they are Categorized as mesons of spin-0.
For reference request see Concepts of Modern Physics McGrawHill Arthur Beiser pages(410 and 482)
 
malawi_glenn said:
No the pion is not a lepton
Thanks guy. I meant to say meson(this is obvious the mass accounts for the range. In fact we know that the strong interaction will not act between leptons since leptons have no color.

Guy you are good!
 

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