- #1
SlowThinker
- 474
- 65
There is a question that has been puzzling me for quite a few years by now, since the moment I've heard that quarks have charge ##-e/3##, ##2e/3## etc. There seem to be 2 independent answers to the title:
1. There is a Charge Censorship Principle, where you can never observe a charge ##e/3## and the like, only integer multiples of ##e##.
2. Quantum chromodynamics, with 3 colors, 3 anticolors and the colorless principle, only mixes quarks into integer multiples of the electron's charge.
I'm not asking "how" (2) implies (1), but "if" that is indeed the case, or just a funny coincidence. I've never seen this mentioned in popular books, or the introductory courses that I have watched.
A supplementary question would be, are there any attempts to explain the quark behavior based on (1) rather than (2), or is QCD accepted by all serious physicists as the answer?
1. There is a Charge Censorship Principle, where you can never observe a charge ##e/3## and the like, only integer multiples of ##e##.
2. Quantum chromodynamics, with 3 colors, 3 anticolors and the colorless principle, only mixes quarks into integer multiples of the electron's charge.
I'm not asking "how" (2) implies (1), but "if" that is indeed the case, or just a funny coincidence. I've never seen this mentioned in popular books, or the introductory courses that I have watched.
A supplementary question would be, are there any attempts to explain the quark behavior based on (1) rather than (2), or is QCD accepted by all serious physicists as the answer?