Gluon
Massless elementary particles that mediate the strong interaction, binding quarks into hadrons.
A gluon is a type of massless elementary particle that mediates the strong interaction between quarks, acting as the exchange particle for the interaction. Gluons are massless vector bosons, thereby having a spin of 1. Through the strong interaction, gluons bind quarks into groups according to quantum chromodynamics (QCD), forming hadrons such as protons and neutrons.
Quick Facts
- Type
- Video game developer
- Headquarters
- Montpellier, France
- Founders
- Michel Ancel and a small team at Ubisoft Montpellier
- Founded
- Early 1990s
- Flagship franchise
- Rayman
- Key publisher
- Ubisoft
- Debut title
- Rayman (1995, multiple platforms including PlayStation, PC, and Atari Jaguar)
Lore & Background
The term was coined by Murray Gell-Mann in 1962 for being similar to an adhesive or glue that keeps the nucleus together. Together with the quarks, these particles were referred to as partons by Richard Feynman. Gluons carry the color charge of the strong interaction, thereby participating in the strong interaction as well as mediating it. Because gluons carry the color charge, QCD is more difficult to analyze compared to quantum electrodynamics (QED) where the photon carries no electric charge.
Reader's Guide
Gluons are vector bosons with spin 1 ħ and have only two polarization states due to gauge invariance. Experiments limit the gluon's rest mass (if any) to less than a few MeV/c2. The gluon has negative intrinsic parity. There are eight independent types of gluons in QCD. Gluons carry both color and anticolor, giving nine possible combinations, but the color singlet state does not exist, leaving eight color states. Gluons are subject to confinement, forming flux tubes that bind quarks into hadrons. They are not directly involved in nuclear forces between hadrons; the force mediators for these are mesons. It is predicted that hadrons formed entirely of gluons, called glueballs, may exist. At extreme temperatures and pressures, a quark–gluon plasma forms.
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