Strong nuclear force

The strong interaction or strong force is today understood to represent the interactions between quarks and gluons as detailed by the theory of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). The strong force is the fundamental force mediated by gluons, acting upon quarks, antiquarks, and the gluons themselves.The strong force only acts directly upon elementary particles. However, a residual of the force is observed between hadrons (the best known example being the force that acts between nucleons in atomic nuclei) as the nuclear force. Here the strong force acts indirectly, transmitted as gluons which form part of the virtual pi and rho mesons which classically transmit the nuclear force (see this topic for more). As has been shown by many failed free quark searches, the elementary particles affected are unobservable directly. This phenomenon is called confinement, a theory which allows only hadrons to be seen.
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Hadrons communicate with each other through a force of nature known as the strong nuclear force. This is the strongest of all the forces but only acts over the distance of an atomic nucleus. In the grand unified theory (GUT), the strong nuclear force is linked to the weak nuclear force and to the electromagnetic force.