XPost: sci.physics   
   From: bodkinodd@gmail.com   
      
   On 3/5/2017 5:02 PM, Norm X wrote:   
   > Hello,   
   >   
   > An isolated neutron will on average, in its own rest frame, decay into an   
   > electron and a proton in less than 15 minutes. The electron is an   
   > indivisible particle, while the proton is not.   
   >   
   > The nucleus of all atoms except hydrogen, is some kind of ensemble of   
   > protons and neutron, bound by the strong nuclear force. Isolated protons and   
   > neutrons are each identical particles. This may be true even if they are not   
   > isolated.   
   >   
   > According to the standard model, protons and neutron are each some kind of   
   > ensemble of quarks, bound by the strong nuclear force.   
   >   
   > Question: to what extent can we consider the nucleus an ensemble of quarks   
   > without recourse to the proton/neutron description of the nucleus?   
   >   
   > Thanks.   
   >   
   >   
      
   This is not an OT post at all, at least not in sci.physics. It's a   
   really good question in fact. The answer, as far as I can tell from what   
   I've read, depends on what scale you're looking at. Interestingly   
   enough, the way things look depends on size scale or equivalently energy   
   scale.   
      
   At low energies, say collision energies small compared to the nucleon   
   rest mass (about a GeV), the quarks are pretty much bound states inside   
   of each nucleon, though there is enough that "leaks out" that a decent   
   model of the strong force at that scale is one that features the   
   exchange of quark-antiquark pairs between nucleons. You can describe   
   those pairs as being dominantly pions.   
      
   At high energies, though, more of the quark-gluon plasma ("quagma")   
   nature of the soup exhibits itself. This is called asymptotic freedom,   
   where the quarks no longer behave as though their bound inside of anything.   
      
      
      
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