Nuclear Force

Nuclear force is related to quarks and gluons in the following ways:

• Protons and neutrons are made up of a combination of smaller particles called quarks and down quarks. A proton has two up quarks and one down quark whereas neutron has one up quark and two down quarks.
• Nuclear force is an interaction between quarks that is mediated by particles called gluons. These are the exchange particles that are important for strong interactions. In simple words, they glue quarks together as they are being exchanged between quarks constantly.
• Quarks are never found alone and are often found with protons and neutrons. This happens because of the behaviour of sthe trong force that increases in strength as quarks are pulled apart.

Nuclear force is important to maintain the stability of an atomic nucleus for the following reasons:

• A nucleus has positively charged sub-particles called protons. Since like charges repel each other, a nucleus, in ideal scenario, should fall apart because protons won't be able to coexist in the nucleus. However, nuclear force is extremely strong at very short range. Due to this reason, protons stay bound within nucleus and therefore, nucleus remains stable.
• Nuclear force is responsible for binding energy that holds the nucleons together within a nucleus. Higher binding energy will result in a more stable nucleus.
• The nuclear force shows a saturation property which means that nucleon interact mainly with its the nearest neighbours. This property maintains stability of the nucleus as it increases in size by preventing the nucleus from expanding uncontrollably.
• Nuclear force depends on the spins of nucleons and has a tensor component. This characteristic also contributes to the overall stability of nucleus.