Editing Color charge (section)

{{Short description|Quantum number related to the strong force}}
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{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Standard model of particle physics}}

'''Color charge''' is a property of [[quark]]s and [[gluon]]s that is related to the particles' [[strong interaction]]s in the theory of [[quantum chromodynamics]] (QCD). Like [[electric charge]], it determines how quarks and gluons interact through the strong force; however, rather than there being only positive and negative charges, there are three "charges", commonly called red, green, and blue. Additionally, there are three "anti-colors", commonly called anti-red, anti-green, and anti-blue. Unlike electric charge, color charge is never observed in nature: in all cases, red, green, and blue (or anti-red, anti-green, and anti-blue) or any color and its anti-color combine to form a "color-neutral" system. For example, the three quarks making up any [[baryon]] universally have three different color charges, and the two quarks making up any [[meson]] universally have opposite color charge.

The "color charge" of quarks and gluons is completely unrelated to the everyday meaning of [[color]], which refers to the frequency of [[photon]]s, the particles that mediate a different fundamental force, [[electromagnetism]]. The term ''color'' and the labels red, green, and blue became popular simply because of the loose but convenient analogy to the [[primary color]]s.