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Gluon

From Tilcayo Cats, the lean encyclopaedia by Tilcayo Knowledge Systems

A gluon is a tiny particle that carries the strong force, one of the four fundamental forces of nature. In the same way, the photon carries the electromagnetic force, and the W and Z bosons carry the weak force.[1] Particles like these, which pass a force between other particles, belong to a wider group called bosons.[2] The strong force acts on quarks, the particles that make up protons and neutrons.[3]

Properties

There are eight different kinds of gluon. They differ only in a property called "colour charge", which has nothing to do with everyday colours.[4] Unlike photons, gluons can take part in the force they carry: a gluon can give off another gluon, or join with other gluons to make new particles.[5] The theory that describes gluons and the strong force is called quantum chromodynamics (QCD). It describes strong interactions with great accuracy.[6]

Discovery

Scientists could not see gluons directly, so they looked for a pattern they would leave behind. When an electron and a positron collide and a gluon is produced, the detector should record three separate sprays, or "jets", of particles, all lying in the same flat plane.[7] The search took place at PETRA, a new particle collider at the DESY laboratory.[8] In 1979, all four teams working at PETRA showed results with this three-jet pattern,[9] and the gluon was accepted as discovered in the summer of that year.[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Standard Model". CERN. Retrieved 20 October 2026. the strong force is carried by the "gluon", the electromagnetic force is carried by the "photon", and the "W and Z bosons" are responsible for the weak force.
  2. ↑ "The Standard Model". CERN. Retrieved 20 October 2026. Three of the fundamental forces result from the exchange of force-carrier particles, which belong to a broader group called "bosons".
  3. ↑ "The discovery of the gluon – a research trip back to the 70s". DESY. Retrieved 20 October 2026. These are thought to interact by means of four fundamental forces, three of which are described by the (current) Standard Model: the strong force, which acts on quarks, the weak force and the electromagnetic force
  4. ↑ "The discovery of the gluon – a research trip back to the 70s". DESY. Retrieved 20 October 2026. altogether, eight different such force carriers exist, only differing in their colour charge.
  5. ↑ "The discovery of the gluon – a research trip back to the 70s". DESY. Retrieved 20 October 2026. Gluons can themselves emit gluons (in a sense, producing offspring), or else create particles together with other gluons
  6. ↑ "The discovery of the gluon – a research trip back to the 70s". DESY. Retrieved 20 October 2026. Scientists came up with quantum chromodynamics (QCD) as a set of rules to describe the strong nuclear force carried by gluons. This theory describes strong interactions with impressive accuracy
  7. ↑ "The discovery of the gluon – a research trip back to the 70s". DESY. Retrieved 20 October 2026. Hence an electron-positron collision that gives rise to a gluon ought to be characterised by three clearly distinct jets of particles inside the detector. The laws of the conservation of energy and momentum meant that all three jets had to lie in the same plane.
  8. ↑ "The discovery of the gluon – a research trip back to the 70s". DESY. Retrieved 20 October 2026. the other, the Positron-Electron Tandem Ring Accelerator, PETRA, at DESY, had recently gone into operation.
  9. ↑ "The discovery of the gluon – a research trip back to the 70s". DESY. Retrieved 20 October 2026. all four PETRA collaborations were able to present analysed results displaying the three-jet signature in a single plane.
  10. ↑ "The discovery of the gluon – a research trip back to the 70s". DESY. Retrieved 20 October 2026. the gluon, the mediator of the strong interaction, had been discovered in the summer of 1979.
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