quantum chromodynamics

quantum chromodynamics

n. (used with a sing. verb)

Chromodynamics.

---

quantum chromodynamics

n

(Physics / Atomic Physics) Physics a theory describing the strong interaction in terms of quarks and gluons, with the colour of quarks used as an analogue of charge and the gluon as an analogue of the photon Abbreviation QCD

[chromodynamics from chromo- (referring to quark colour) + dynamics, modelled on quantum electrodynamics]

---

quantum chromodynamics

A quantum field theory of the strong force that explains the interaction between particles with color charge, such as quarks and gluons. In quantum chromodynamics, particles interact through the strong force by exchanging gluons, which are the carriers of the strong force (much as photons are the carriers of the electromagnetic force in quantum electrodynamics). The theory is particularly important in theories of the atomic nucleus, whose nucleons are composed of quarks.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

quantum chromodynamics - a theory of strong interactions between elementary particles (including the interaction that binds protons and neutrons in the nucleus); it assumes that strongly interacting particles (hadrons) are made of quarks and that gluons bind the quarks together QCD quantum field theory - the branch of quantum physics that is concerned with the theory of fields; it was motivated by the question of how an atom radiates light as its electrons jump from excited states