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1 vote
1 answer
77 views

Justifying the identification of eight gluons with the ${\bf 8}$ from ${\bf 3}\otimes{\bf 3}^*$

When we combine the fundamental ${\bf 3}$ and antifundamental ${\bf 3}^*$ of color $SU(3)$ of QCD i.e. single quark of three colors and a single antiquark of 3 anticolors, nine states are obtained. ...
Solidification's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
1k views

Is the concept of bicolored gluons mathematically precise/meaningful? Please explain

Each flavour of quark carries a colour quantum number: red, green or blue. I know what it means mathematically. But elementary textbooks (e.g, particle physics by Griffiths) also say that gluons are ...
Solidification's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
129 views

A gluon can have nine independent, bicolored states. How are some of the additions of these individual states, like $r\bar{r}+g\bar{g}+b\bar{b}$?

This came from the 25th page of the following pdf: http://www.gammaexplorer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Quarks-and-Leptons-An-Introductory-Course-in-Modern-Particle-Physics.pdf Sorry if I am asking ...
Coopthecomposer's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
91 views

How is the colour quantum number not conserved in this process?

I stumbled upon this CERN article, where I found this diagram describing the process $gg \rightarrow HH$: I'm still new to QCD, and I don't see how a coloured gluon can decay into colourless final ...
Physicist_285's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
514 views

Eight gluons, what are the properties of two of them?

If there are 8 gluons, and 6 of them can be represented as a color/anticolor pair (red/antiblue for example), that leaves 2 "other" gluons. How do these two gluons differ from each other? ...
Madman's user avatar
  • 51
3 votes
2 answers
2k views

Confusions with gluons. How many of them are there?

Gluons are bicolored objects. They are made out of one color and one anticolor. Therefore, there seems to be nine possible states $r\bar{r},r\bar{b},r\bar{g},b\bar{r},b\bar{b},b\bar{g},g\bar{r},g\bar{...
Solidification's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
475 views

Why don't green and anti-green gluons immediately annihilate each other?

I can't believe I haven't found an answer elsewhere..... I have read repeatedly about blue/anti-blue gluons, etc., but no reason as to why they don't destroy each other immediately..... Or maybe they ...
Kurt Hikes's user avatar
  • 4,509
1 vote
3 answers
2k views

Why do quarks and gluons have colour?

I asked a question here a few days ago and got some fantastic answers so I'm going to continue. Let me preface this by saying I know quarks do not actually have 'colour', but colour is some sort of ...
T. Smith's user avatar
  • 311
3 votes
0 answers
142 views

How do we show that gluon-fields have color?

I understand how to derive the QCD lagrangian based on certain assumptions about Quark fields and $SU(3)$ gauge invariance and in the final expression one finds the term $(A_µ)^c*T_c$ where $T_c$ is ...
Craig's user avatar
  • 1,117
3 votes
1 answer
383 views

Quark-Gluon color relationship in pure QCD

Consider pure QCD, flavor turned off. There are 3 quarks and 3 anti-quarks given by the fundamental IRR of SU(3) and its conjugate rep. We associate the three colors and anti-colors with the three ...
Jim Eshelman's user avatar
26 votes
3 answers
5k views

How (or when) do gluons change the color of a quark?

I know a baryon is only stable when it contains a quark of each color. And as far as I know, the gluon essentially changes the color of a quark and moves onto the next, and this is what holds the ...
Vedvart1's user avatar
  • 508
0 votes
1 answer
535 views

What exactly is the color charge in QCD? [duplicate]

I don't have strong background in particle physics. Though, I had learnt a little of it. I have gone through the basic of these stuffs (pretty OK). If I have done my homework right, color charge (R,G,...
user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
916 views

How does quark color affect the identity of a hadron?

I've read about colors relating to quarks and hadrons and I know that they can change colors because of the exchange with gluons, but does changing color change the type of hadron? Does a proton ...
Honors Level Maker's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
270 views

How many glueballs are there?

As I understand there are eight types of gluons (linear combinations of color/anticolor pairs with varying amplitudes) which can combine (for very short periods) to form glueballs. If there were no ...
Charles's user avatar
  • 756
2 votes
1 answer
376 views

Why do we say that gluons carry color charge?

We know that gluons are Lie algebra $su(3)$-valued one-form fiels $A_{\mu}$. And because of $[A_\mu,A_\nu]$ does not vanish generally for the non-Abelian case, gluons have self-interactions. Now how ...
Wein Eld's user avatar
  • 3,691

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