Abstract
The first step towards composite structures of matter is the combinations of three quarks of total color-charge zero or the combination of a quark and an antiquark of total color-charge zero mainly through the mediation of gluons. Only protons consisting of two up quarks and one down quark are stable. Neutrons are stabilized inside non-radioactive nuclei.
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- 1.
There are two related times which characterize the rate of exponential decay of metastable structures. If initially (t = 0) there were \( N_{o} \) such structures, their number at a later time t is \( N\left( t \right) = N_{o} \exp \left( { - t/\tau } \right) \), where \( \tau \) is called their mean lifetime. We define also the half-life, \( t_{1/2} \), as the time at which the remaining number \( N\left( {t_{1/2} } \right) \)is half the initial number \( N_{o} \); obviously we have \( \exp \left( { - t_{1/2} /\tau } \right) = 1/2 \), or \( t_{1/2} = \tau \ln 2 = 0.693\tau \)
- 2.
Each additional vertex in a diagram introduces a factor of \( a = \)1/137 in QED, while the corresponding factor in QCD is \( a_{s} , \) i.e., approximately equal to one.
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© 2011 Eleftherios N. Economou
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Economou, E.N. (2011). From Quarks and Gluons To Hadrons. In: A Short Journey from Quarks to the Universe. SpringerBriefs in Physics, vol 1. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20089-2_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20089-2_6
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Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-20088-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-20089-2
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