Revised 'layered' structure of the neutron

[ajna]

I have just read the following article from LiveScience: http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/070917_neutron_charge.html<br /><br />and this part in particular astounded me:<br />"The neutron has been found to have a negative charge both in its inner core and its outer edge, with a positive charge sandwiched in between to make the particle electrically neutral."<br /><br />Can someone explain how quarks can cause this kind of structure? I am trying with great difficulty to picture how this works!!

 

[heyscottie]

Well, a neutron is made up of one up quark and two down quarks. An up quark has a charge of + 2/3. A down quark has a charge of - 1/3. I guess the only real question here is how a quark can arrange itself into a "shell" type structure. But even if we interpret them as particles, this can make sense. The two down quarks would tend to separate from one another, leaving the top quark in between.<br /><br />Why it doesn't resemble an atom, with the up quark acting as a nucleus, and the downs acting like an electron cloud, I don't quite know. But I could imagine a scenario where the one down sits toward the center, the up "orbits" in a shell around it, and the other down "orbits" in a shell further out.

 

[michaelmozina]

Thanks for that very interesting link....<br /><br />http://arxiv.org/ftp/nucl-th/papers/0511/0511051.pdf<br /><br />Neutron repulsion is something that Dr. Oliver Manuel and his students have measured and studied for many years. The fact that the outside layer and the core of the neutron is negatively charged may shed a great deal of light on the nature of that repulsive force. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> It seems to be a natural consequence of our points of view to assume that the whole of space is filled with electrons and flying electric ions of all kinds. - Kristian Birkeland </div>