Gluon Gluon A gluon () is an elementary particle that acts as the exchange particle (or gauge boson) for the strong force between quarks. It is analogous to the exchange of photons in the electromagnetic force between two charged particles. In layman's terms, they "glue" quarks together, forming hadrons such as protons and neutrons. In technical terms, gluons are vector gauge bosons that mediate strong interactions of quarks in quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Gluons themselves carry the color charge of the strong interaction. This is unlike the photon, which mediates the electromagnetic interaction but lacks an electric charge. Gluons therefore participate in
Elementary particle one can conclude that most of the visible mass of the universe consists of protons and neutrons, which, like all baryons, in turn consist of up quarks and down quarks. Some estimates imply that there are roughly baryons (almost entirely protons and neutrons) in the observable universe. The number of protons in the observable universe is called the Eddington number. In terms of number of particles, some estimates imply that nearly all the matter, excluding dark matter, occurs in neutrinos, and that roughly elementary particles of matter exist in the visible universe, mostly neutrinos. Other estimates imply that roughly elementary