The Gluon

<p><strong>The Field Guide to Particle Physics <br></strong><a href="https://pasayten.org/the-field-guide-to-particle-physics">https://pasayten.org/the-field-guide-to-particle-physics</a><br>©2021 The Pasayten Institute <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">cc by-sa-4.0</a><br>The definitive resource for all data in particle physics is the Particle Data Group: <a href="https://pdg.lbl.gov/">https://pdg.lbl.gov</a>.</p><p>The Pasayten Institute is on a mission to build and share physics knowledge, without barriers! <a href="http://pasayten.org/heysean">Get in touch</a>.</p><p><strong>The Gluon<br></strong><br>The forces of nature are communicated by particles. Electric charges push and pull on each other with <a href="https://pasayten.org/the-field-guide-to-particle-physics/photon">photons</a>. <a href="https://pasayten.org/the-field-guide-to-particle-physics/proton">Protons</a> and <a href="https://pasayten.org/the-field-guide-to-particle-physics/neutron">neutrons</a> communicate by <a href="https://pasayten.org/the-field-guide-to-particle-physics/charged-pion">pion</a>. How this works involves a bit of mathematics, but a rough analogy often used is two ice skaters on a frozen lake throwing bowling balls back and forth.</p><p><br>This is all well and good for particles zooming freely through space. But how to do the <a href="https://pasayten.org/the-field-guide-to-particle-physics/up-and-down-quarks">quarks</a> locked inside those protons, neutrons and pions communicate with each other? </p><p><br>The strong nuclear force - the fundamental force behind the subnuclear junk we find inside the nucleons - is communicated via a particle very similar to the photon. But you’ll have to excuse their name, however apt. The particles that communicate between quarks are called gluons.</p><p><br>Yes, as in glue.</p><p><br>Like the photon, gluons have no mass. They’re just little packets of nuclear force energy. Unlike the photon, gluon communication is a mess. Photons only communicates between par