From: ßrendan ® 08/02/2001 0:19:25 Subject: Quantum Electro post id: 225025 Hello everybody Can anybody explain how Gluons bind Quarks together? From: Arno ® 08/02/2001 0:28:26 Subject: re: Quantum Electro post id: 225030 Not too sure Brendan, but they repel off each other under heat and pressure within a chaotic plasma. Or so I learnt in the latest New Scientist Arno From: ßrendan ® 08/02/2001 0:34:56 Subject: re: Quantum Electro post id: 225034 Interesting, but I don't understand the word plasma. I thought it was a sci-fi term until recently. From: Kendal 08/02/2001 0:41:13 Subject: re: Quantum Electro post id: 225037 I understood that it was wrong to think of sub-sub atomic particles in terms of 'matter.' These particles are fields, forces, charges and events! From: Dr. Ed G (Avatar) 08/02/2001 6:29:53 Subject: re: Quantum Electro post id: 225110 Kendal's caveat is useful to keep in mind - it important to remember that at a quantum level particles don't behave the same as say billiard balls do at a classical level (under the right conditions even biliard balls with exhibit "quantum peculiarities"). Perhaps one way to think about it is in terms of standing waves. The ripples on a waters surface will be the sum of many many different water waves, often going in different directions. Under the right conditions such as in a fishtank, you can get several different waves to combine to form a standing wave - that is, ripples or rather crests and valleys on the surface of the water which don't change position. The shape of the water's surface is the result of many different individual waves going in all different directions. The situation with say virtual photons is loosely analogous to this with respect to the shape of electromagnetic fields in quantum electrodynamics (QED). In QED the total electromagnetic field is made up the sum of the waves of zillions of virtual photons (light waves) with different wavelengths and energies all zooming around in different directions. These virtual photons determine the shape of the electromagnetic field and as a consequence determine how that field will affect the force on and movement of particles which posses electromagnetic charge, such as electrons and protons. Similarly, in quantum chromodynamics (QCD), gluons of different wavelengths, energies zooming about in different directions determine the shape and intensity of strong nuclear fields which affect the force on and movement of particles which posses a property called "colour" (which is just a label which high energy physicists have assigned to the property that determines how a particle will be influenced by the strong nuclear force - it is the strong nuclear equivalent of electric charge) such as the quarks which make up larger particles like protons and neutrons. The take home point it that particles called exchange particles (because they are exchanged by being absorbed and emitted by other particles) create and indeed completely make up the fields which affect other particles. In QED, photons are the exchange particles which generate electromagnetic fields which affect particles with charge (like electrons). In QCD, gluons are the exchange particles which generate nuclear fields which affect particles with colour (like quarks). Soupie twist, Ed G. This forum is un-moderated. The views and opinions expressed are those of the individual poster and not the ABC. The ABC reserves the right to remove offensive or inappropriate messages.