trying to understand Strong Force interactions ?

[Widdekind]

According to Nambu's book Quarks, quark triplets, in baryons, are best imagined, as connected together, via string-like bonds, to a common center:

 

Now, I understand, that quarks "extrude" glue, which "carries away" the quarks' colors. For example, a red quark [math]q_r[/math] exists in a super-position:

 

[math]<q_r> \approx \frac{1}{3}q_r : g_{\bar{r}r} + \frac{1}{3}q_y : g_{\bar{y}r} + \frac{1}{3}q_b : g_{\bar{b}r}[/math]

 

[math]\approx q_W : g_{\bar{W}r}[/math]

 

[math] = q_W : g_{Br}[/math]

I.e. the quark essentially "blanches", into a "white" super-position state, wherein the quark is equally likely to be "red", "yellow" or "blue", i.e. the quark "is as much one color as any other", and so is effectively "white". Likewise, the anti-colors, of the gluons emitted, being "anti-red (green)", "anti-yellow (purple)", or "anti-blue (orange)", also sum, in super-position, to "anti-white (black)":

 

Thus, three such quarks, in a color-neutral triplet, in a baryon, are effectively in the state:

 

[math]<q_r> + <q_y> + <q_b> \approx q_W : g_{Br} + q_W : g_{By} + q_W : g_{Bb}[/math]

 

When gluon bonds "break", they "rip" at the "juncture", between the anti-color & color:

 

[math]g_{\bar{c}c} \rightarrow \bar{q}_{\bar{c}} + q_c[/math]

So, assuming spherical symmetry, the structure of a nucleon, per this picture, is a little like that of our earth:

 

• White "crust" -- color-neutral "skin" of "bag" in "bag model", wherein quarks emerge (when glue bonds break)
  
• Black "mantle" -- anti-color-neutral interior of "bag", wherein anti-quarks emerge (when glue bonds break)
  
• White "core" -- color-neutral center of "bag", wherein original quark triplet resides, "extruding" glue
  

If so, then quarks "greet each other at arms length", "extruding" their colors into gluons, and "shaking hands" ~1fm away, not "hugging" up close. Is that what Nambu implied, in his book ? If so, then quarks in nucleons, are a little like "bungee bulls" at amusement parks:

 

 

Is such a scenario what accounts for "asymptotic freedom", wherein quarks do not Strongly interact, deep in the central "core" regions of nucleons, but rather only when they are "jostled" nearer to the "surface", i.e. "skin of the bag" ??

[Widdekind]

The RHIC 'particle' collider, at BNL, has smashed gold nuclei together, thereby generating intra-nuclear temperatures, of [math]4 TK \approx 400 MeV[/math], as measured by the "color of light" emitted, from the collision region, immediately after impact. Prima facie, nuclei, and individual nucleons, can & do have internal temperatures. Indeed, [math]4 TK[/math] temperatures correspond, to the "dressed" quark masses, inside nucleons, i.e. [math]m_{q,eff} \approx \frac{1}{3} m_P[/math]. Perhaps quarks, gluons, and virtual quark-antiquark pairs, inside nucleons, equilibrate to the same ambient temperatures, of the nucleon's environment (and "boil out" of nucleons at temperatures [math]\ge 4 TK[/math]? For example, quarks carry EM charge, and so they could interact, with ions & electrons, in astrophysical plasmas. Perhaps the nucleons, within the gas & dust, in deep space, have equilibrated, to [math]\approx 3K[/math] ??

Edited January 11, 2012 by Widdekind