Editing Standard Model (section)

=== Strong nuclear force ===
{{See also|Strong interaction|Nuclear force|Quantum chromodynamics}}
The strong nuclear force is responsible for hadronic and [[Nuclear binding energy|nuclear binding]]. It is mediated by gluons, which couple to color charge. Since gluons themselves have color charge, the strong force exhibits [[Color confinement|confinement]] and [[asymptotic freedom]]. Confinement means that only color-neutral particles can exist in isolation, therefore quarks can only exist in hadrons and never in isolation, at low energies. Asymptotic freedom means that the strong force becomes weaker, as the energy scale increases. The strong force overpowers the [[electrostatic]] repulsion of protons and quarks in nuclei and hadrons respectively, at their respective scales.

While quarks are bound in hadrons by the fundamental strong interaction, which is mediated by gluons, nucleons are bound by an emergent phenomenon termed the ''residual strong force'' or ''[[nuclear force]]''. This interaction is mediated by mesons, such as the [[pion]]. The color charges inside the nucleon cancel out, meaning most of the gluon and quark fields cancel out outside of the nucleon. However, some residue is "leaked", which appears as the exchange of virtual mesons, that causes the attractive force between nucleons. The (fundamental) strong interaction is described by quantum chromodynamics, which is a component of the Standard Model.