Quantum Chromodynamics

In theoretical physics, quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory of strong interactions, a fundamental force describing the interactions between quarks and gluons, which make up hadrons such as the proton, neutron and pion. QCD is a type of quantum field theory called a non-abelian gauge theory with symmetry group SU(3). The QCD analog of electric charge is a property called color. Gluons are the force carrier of the theory, like photons are for the electromagnetic force in quantum electrodynamics. The theory is an important part of the Standard Model of particle physics. A large body of experimental evidence for QCD has been gathered over the years.

QCD enjoys two peculiar properties:

The phase transition temperature between these two properties has been measured by the ALICE experiment to be well above 160 MeV. Below this temperature, confinement is dominant, while above it, asymptotic freedom becomes dominant.

American physicist Murray Gell-Mann (b. 1929) coined the word quark in its present sense. It originally comes from the phrase "Three quarks for Muster Mark" in Finnegans Wake by James Joyce. On June 27, 1978, Gell-Mann wrote a private letter to the editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, in which he related that he had been influenced by Joyce's words: "The allusion to three quarks seemed perfect." (Originally, only three quarks had been discovered.) Gell-Mann, however, wanted to pronounce the word to rhyme with "fork" rather than with "park", as Joyce seemed to indicate by rhyming words in the vicinity such as Mark. Gell-Mann got around that "by supposing that one ingredient of the line 'Three quarks for Muster Mark' was a cry of 'Three quarts for Mister ...' heard in H.C. Earwicker's pub", a plausible suggestion given the complex punning in Joyce's novel.

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