Fundamental interaction The gravitational force is attributed to the curvature of spacetime, described by Einstein's general theory of relativity. The other three are discrete quantum fields, and their interactions are mediated by elementary particles described by the Standard Model of particle physics. Within the Standard Model, the strong interaction is carried by a particle called the gluon, and is responsible for quarks binding together to form hadrons, such as protons and neutrons. As a residual effect, it creates the nuclear force that binds the latter particles to form atomic nuclei. The weak interaction is carried by particles called W and Z bosons,
Chirality (physics) to begin with, and therefore the pions are not massless, but have small masses: they are pseudo-Goldstone bosons. For more "light" quark species, flavors in general, the corresponding chiral symmetries are "U(N)×U(N)", decomposing into and exhibiting a very analogous chiral symmetry breaking pattern. Most usually, = 3 is taken, the "u, d", and "s" quarks taken to be light (the Eightfold way (physics)), so then approximately massless for the symmetry to be meaningful to a lowest order, while the other three quarks are sufficiently heavy to barely have a residual chiral symmetry be visible for practical purposes. In theoretical physics,