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I've always been told gluons are the force "particles" mediating the strong force. And I've learned that Fluxtubes are what hold quarks together. Are these fluxtubes the "particle" component of gluons?

I can't seem to find an explanation of where the "particle" resides within the gluon field. I've seen these animations that say the particles "jump" to the higher energy blobs. But then are the particles themselves not what binds quarks together?

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  • $\begingroup$ Gluons are not observables per se, because they are excitations of a gauge field, which is unphysical. But what we can try to observe are the chromo-electric and chromo-magnetic fields, described mathematically as the curvature of the gauge field. Flux tubes are a peculiar configuration of the chromo-electric and chromo-magnetic fields. $\endgroup$
    – Jeanbaptiste Roux
    Commented Oct 1, 2022 at 7:37
  • $\begingroup$ So the idea of quarks exchanging "particles" is inaccurate? $\endgroup$
    – TheJeran
    Commented Oct 1, 2022 at 8:58
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, virtual particles (the particles that are "exchanged") do not exist and are mathematical artifacts of the perturbative expansion we use in QFT. $\endgroup$
    – Jeanbaptiste Roux
    Commented Oct 1, 2022 at 9:15

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Gluons are zero mass elementary point particles in the standard model of particle physics. They are for the strong interaction what the photon is for the electromagnetic interactions.

Electrons and nuclei form atoms held together with the exchange of virtual photons . The attraction of quark to quark or antiquark is similar, but complicated mathematically by the fact that gluons are attracted to gluons, whereas photons are not attracted to photons. So a quark and antiquark forming a hadron, pion for example, exchange what you call "flux tubes", virtual complicated gluon exchanges, forming a flux because of the glue-glue attraction (a pion will decay very fast through the weak interaction, but that is another story). There is no "particle within the gluon field", and the term "gluon field" belongs to a higher level quantum model, the quantum field theory, a complicated story at this level of the question.

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  • $\begingroup$ Okay this is making a bit of sense. A quick question I'm wondering now. Do you know if the "Vacuum" of the fluxtube "sucks" quarks together or the attraction of gluons to the flux tube "pushes" quarks together? Or neither? $\endgroup$
    – TheJeran
    Commented Oct 1, 2022 at 9:01
  • $\begingroup$ AFAIK it is complicated. Flux tubes for the QCD vacuum come from a specific model of QCD and electromagnetic interactions, see this arxiv.org/abs/1702.06437, so ti is a specific vacuum in a specific theoretical model for quark interactions. $\endgroup$
    – anna v
    Commented Oct 1, 2022 at 18:03
  • $\begingroup$ Awesome thanks! $\endgroup$
    – TheJeran
    Commented Oct 2, 2022 at 7:54
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When an electron moves up or down an energy level it is a photon not a virtual photon that is emitted or absorbed. It's a real photon. Hence frequency color.

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  • $\begingroup$ I don't see at all how this addresses gluons. $\endgroup$
    – Jon Custer
    Commented Jan 5, 2023 at 15:46
  • $\begingroup$ As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please edit to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center. $\endgroup$
    – Community Bot
    Commented Jan 5, 2023 at 15:47

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