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IMAGE: When a proton collides with a proton, the gluon emitted by one of the valence quarks can interact with a virtual quark from the the quark-antiquark pair inside the other...
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Credit: Source: IFJ PAN / Dual Color
Inside each proton or neutron there are three quarks bound by gluons. Until now, it has often been assumed that two of them form a "stable" pair known as a diquark. It seems, however, that it's the end of the road for the diquarks in physics. This is one of the conclusions of the new model of proton-proton or proton-nucleus collisions, which takes into account the interactions of gluons with the sea of virtual quarks and antiquarks.