Colour
Colour: Each
flavour of quark can exist in three variations, called colours, usually labelled
as red, green, and blue. The colour of a quark has no relation to its visual
appearance, but the word colour is used because there are three variations, in
analogy with the three primary colours. Measurable properties of the quarks,
such as electric charge and mass, depend on the flavour but not the colour, but
the colour is responsible for the interactions that bind the quarks together
(see Yang-Milis theories). Individual quarks cannot exist independently, but
are forever confined within baryons or mesons, each of which is colourless.
Baryons achieve colourlessness by being composed of three quarks, one of each
colour, while mesons achieve colourlessness by pairing each coloured quark with
its corresponding antiquark.
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