Editing Strong interaction (section)

=== Between hadrons ===
{{main|Nuclear force}}
[[File:Pn_Scatter_Quarks.svg|thumb|300x300px|A [[Feynman diagram]] (shown by the animation in the lead) with the individual [[quark]] constituents shown, to illustrate how the fundamental strong interaction gives rise to the [[nuclear force]]. Straight lines are quarks, while multi-colored loops are [[Gluon|gluons]] (the carriers of the fundamental force).]]
While color confinement implies that the strong force acts without distance-diminishment between pairs of quarks in compact collections of bound quarks (hadrons), at distances approaching or greater than the radius of a proton, a residual force (described below) remains. It manifests as a force between the "colorless" hadrons, and is known as the ''[[nuclear force]]'' or ''residual strong force'' (and historically as the ''strong nuclear force'').

The nuclear force acts between hadrons, known as [[meson]]s and [[baryon]]s. This "residual strong force", acting indirectly, transmits gluons that form part of the virtual [[pion|π]] and [[rho meson|ρ]]&nbsp;[[meson]]s, which, in turn, transmit the force between nucleons that holds the nucleus (beyond [[hydrogen-1]] nucleus) together.<ref>{{cite web |title=3. The Strong Force |url=http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/pp/pp3.pdf |publisher=Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge |access-date=10 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211022113145/http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/pp/pp3.pdf |archive-date=22 October 2021}}</ref>

The residual strong force is thus a minor residuum of the strong force that binds quarks together into protons and neutrons. This same force is much weaker ''between'' neutrons and protons, because it is mostly neutralized ''within'' them, in the same way that electromagnetic forces between neutral atoms ([[van der Waals force]]s) are much weaker than the electromagnetic forces that hold electrons in association with the nucleus, forming the atoms.<ref name=Fritzsch1983>
{{cite book
 |last=Fritzsch |first=H.
 |year=1983
 |title=Quarks: The Stuff of Matter
 |url=https://archive.org/details/quarksstuffofmat00frit |url-access=registration |publisher=Basic Books
 |isbn=978-0-465-06781-7
 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/quarksstuffofmat00frit/page/167 167–168]
}}</ref>

Unlike the strong force, the residual strong force diminishes with distance, and does so rapidly. The decrease is approximately as a negative exponential power of distance, though there is no simple expression known for this; see ''[[Yukawa potential]]''. The rapid decrease with distance of the attractive residual force and the less rapid decrease of the repulsive electromagnetic force acting between protons within a nucleus, causes the instability of larger atomic nuclei, such as all those with [[atomic number]]s larger than 82 (the element lead).

Although the nuclear force is weaker than the strong interaction itself, it is still highly energetic: transitions produce [[gamma ray]]s. The mass of a nucleus is significantly different from the summed masses of the individual nucleons. This [[mass defect]] is due to the potential energy associated with the nuclear force. Differences between mass defects power [[nuclear fusion]] and [[nuclear fission]].