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particles (mander.xyz)

submitted 5 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[-] shinysquirrel@lemmy.ml 16 points 5 months ago

I dont get it?

[-] magic_lobster_party@kbin.run 49 points 5 months ago

I found this after a Google: https://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/ParticleAndNuclear/gluons.html

There are 8 types of gluon particles.

[-] rockerface@lemm.ee 43 points 5 months ago

If you are wondering what the hell I am doing subtracting particles from each other, well, that's quantum mechanics.

Sounds about right

[-] dave@feddit.uk 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Physicists:

This is just Occam's razor again: a hypothetical particle that can't interact with anything, and therefore can't be detected, doesn't exist.

Also Physicists: 85% of the universe’ mass is missing!!!

[-] xx3rawr@sh.itjust.works 9 points 5 months ago

Those missing do interact on things, we just don't know what they are. That's why we know they're missing.

[-] perishthethought@lemm.ee 15 points 5 months ago

From Wikipedia:

Unlike the photon of QED or the three W and Z bosons of the weak interaction, there are eight independent types of gluons in QCD.

Glad I could help, lol

[-] shinysquirrel@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 months ago

thank you!

[-] Kovukono@pawb.social 11 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

All of this is just going off checking Wikipedia, so it could be wrong. Gluons are a type of particle that can have nine different "color states" depending on the quarks and anti-quarks that comprise them (despite the name, it has nothing to do with literal color). These states are made up of red, green, and blue for quarks, and anti-red, anti-green, and anti-blue for anti-quarks. Depending on the combinations of quarks and anti-quarks, the color state of gluons listed something like "red-antigreen" as "rg", with the "g" having a line over it to show it's anti-green, not green. Since you can have a color matched with the anti-version of its color, like I said earlier, you get 9 potential color states.

Then, of those 9 color states, you have combinations of two gluons of different types of states that combine. If you have a strong, stable version of this state, it's called a color state singlet. Particles like protons have this state, and it allows them to interact with other particles that also have color singlets. However, gluons can't interact at long range, that means they also can't hold a color singlet.

So, that leaves 8 potential color state couplets that can be formed. I have no idea why there's only 8 valid arrangements of those 9 couplets that aren't a stable singlet, but apparently you can only get 8.

Also tagging @Owl@mander.xyz because I don't think they'd get notified.

Edit: Sorry for the reply after it got answered. There was nothing when I started and it just took a while to figure it out.

[-] NailBunny@hexbear.net 8 points 5 months ago

There are 8 varieties of gluons, the subatomic particles that exchange the strong force between quarks. The person answered with one word that more or less satisfied the 8 particle requirement. I think that's the joke, at least