Adjacent Words

quantum chromodynamics definitions

	Tweet

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a theory of strong interactions between elementary particles (including the interaction that binds protons and neutrons in the nucleus); it assumes that strongly interacting particles (hadrons) are made of quarks and that gluons bind the quarks together [syn: quantum chromodynamics, QCD]

Merriam Webster's

noun plural but singular in construction Date: 1975 a theory of fundamental particles based on the assumption that quarks are distinguished by differences in color and are held together (as in hadrons) by an exchange of gluons

Britannica Concise

(QCD) Theory that describes the action of the strong force. The strong force acts only on certain particles, principally quarks that are bound together in the protons and neutrons of the atomic nucleus, as well as in less stable, more exotic forms of matter. Quantum chromodynamics has been built on the concept that quarks interact via the strong force because they carry a form of "strong charge," which has been given the name "color." The three types of charge are called red, green, and blue, in analogy to the primary colors of light, though there is no connection with the usual sense of color.