With an isolated hydrogen atom as an example, what would happen if the "strong force" suddenly ceased?

Question

I would like to know the specifics per particle.

Answer 1

The strong force not only holds nucleons together, it also confines quarks in the nucleons. Without it, the quarks could exist independently rather than being confined in a hadron. One of the quarks would then have to be ejected due to the charge imbalance. This would then leave a charge imbalance between the nucleus and the electron, which would then break free from it's orbit.

Of course, we wouldn't see any of this, as we would have disintegrated as well :)

Answer 2

The strong nuclear force is what holds the protons and neutrons together in the nucleus of the atom. If the strong force suddenly went away then the nucleus would come appart.

Edit: the imaginary particles which create the protons and neutrons of an atom are held together by the weak nuclear forces, not the strong. Ergo, eliminating the strong nuclear forces would NOT cause elementary particles to disperse to their imaginary particle components. that's for the one who voted me thumbs down based on poor understanding of physics. Second, the nuclear reaction releases the strong nuclear forces. If those forces were to simply vanish then there would be no energy gained from the resulting decay of nucleii since there would be no nuclear bond to release. Oh, and spock, the proton is still much more masseous than the electron, so it would still be more or less a large imobile nucleus in the case you present.

Answer 3

For hydrogen itself : ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! That is, assuming that by "an isolated hydrogen atom as an example," you meant the most common isotope of hydrogen, with only a proton in its nucleus.

The "strong force" is what binds the "nucleons" (protons and neutrons) together in atomic nuclei. It therefore plays no role whatsoever when there's only one proton there.

HOWEVER, it's when one comes to consider ALL OTHER NUCLEI/ATOMS that the fun would really start.

For example, the case for "heavy hydrogen" or "deuterium" would be different from that for the most common hydrogen isotope. The "deuteron" (deuterium's nucleus) contains one proton and one neutron. These have no electromagnetic attraction between them, as the neutron is (not surprisingly, given its name) electrically neutral. ONLY the strong force holds the deuteron together.

So, I presume that the sudden cessation of the strong force would allow the neutron to just drift away (no interaction with the atom's electron, either), while the electron and proton would still be bound together. The electron's electromagnetic energy levels would remain the same, though it's possible that there might be some much smaller effect traceable to the change in the nucleus's inertia, considering the atom as a two-body system, rather than in the usual approximation as possesing an unmoving, extremely heavy nucleus (in comparison to the electron's mass).

I confess that I'm just thinking aloud on this last part ; a real atomic expert would be the ultimate judge.

I also think that ALL other atomic nuclei would disintegrate. For example, helium three's nucleus (two protons, one neutron) is ONLY HELD TOGETHER because the strong force exists; it's needed in order to OVERCOME the electromagnetic repulsion between the two protons. (And similarly, the strong force's binding plays the same role in ALL OTHER ATOMIC NUCLEI.)

So, by and large, all other elements would be dynamically transmuted into protons and electrons in equal numbers (or neutral hydrogen atoms if each electron mangages to associate itself with a proton) --- ignoring the possiblity of the negative hydrogen ion, a beast you may not have heard of, but which provides the DOMINANT OPACITY in the atmospheres of stars like the Sun and in red giants. All of this changed stuff would be moving around in space among a background of free neutrons.

(That is a picture that the Fred Hoyle of the late 1940's and 1950's would really have appreciated in his Steady State Theory --- except that he wouldn't then have been able to exist, of course.)

What's more, with nothing but hydrogen or free protons and electrons around anywhere (plus the relatively unconcerned free neutrons), stars would be quite a bit different, what with only electron scattering opacity, effectively, in their deep interiors, not to mention the ruination of all our present-day nuclear reaction theory.

You would have created a VERY DIFFERENT UNIVERSE in one dramatic stroke!

Thank you for a most stimulating question. It's been great fun, contemplating the outcomes.

Live long and prosper.

Answer 4

gosh! what a fun question! sidestepping the problem of what happens to all that locked up energy when the strong force switches off and assuming we then have left one electron with -1 charge, one down quark with -1/3 charge and two ups with +2/3 each to play with, maybe they could be arranged in a stable arrangement much like a hydrogen molecule? (i.e. the two +2/3rds take the place of the protons and the -1/3 and -1 the two electrons) or if we just choose, say, the two u's and the e we could get a hydrogen molecular ion H2+ analog?