Editing Quantum chromodynamics (section)

===Fields===
[[File:QCD.svg|300px|right|thumb|The pattern of strong charges for the three colors of quark, three antiquarks, and eight gluons (with two of zero charge overlapping).]]

Quarks are massive spin-{{frac|1|2}} [[fermion]]s that carry a [[color charge]] whose gauging is the content of QCD. Quarks are represented by [[Dirac field]]s in the [[fundamental representation]] '''3''' of the [[gauge group]] [[SU(3)]]. They also carry electric charge (either &minus;{{frac|1|3}} or +{{frac|2|3}}) and participate in [[weak interactions]] as part of [[weak isospin]] doublets. They carry global quantum numbers including the [[baryon number]], which is {{frac|1|3}} for each quark, [[hypercharge]] and one of the [[flavor (particle physics)|flavor quantum numbers]].

Gluons are spin-1 [[boson]]s that also carry [[color charge]]s, since they lie in the [[Adjoint representation of a Lie group|adjoint representation]] '''8''' of SU(3). They have no electric charge, do not participate in the weak interactions, and have no flavor. They lie in the [[singlet state|singlet representation]] '''1''' of all these symmetry groups.

Each type of quark has a corresponding antiquark, of which the charge is exactly opposite. They transform in the [[conjugate representation]] to quarks, denoted <math>\bar\mathbf{3}</math>.