Nuclear force

Nuclear force is the force between nucleons. It is the force that pulls protons and neutrons into atoms. It is very hard to break the bond, or tie, between protons and neutrons in an atom, because nuclear force holds them together. When the bond is broken, this is called nuclear fission.

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Nuclear Force Media

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  Corresponding potential energy (in units of MeV) of two nucleons as a function of distance as computed from the Reid potential. The potential well has a minimum at a distance of about 0.8 fm. With this potential nucleons can become bound with a negative "binding energy".

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  A simplified Feynman diagram of a strong proton–neutron interaction mediated by a virtual neutral pion. Time proceeds from left to right.

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  Nuclear Force anim smaller

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  The same diagram as that above 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-coloured loops are gluons (the carriers of the fundamental force). Other gluons, which bind together the proton, neutron, and pion "in flight", are not shown.