What is a long detailed definition of nuclear force?

Answer 1

The protons in the nucleus of an atom are positively charged. If protons interact, they are usually repelled (pushed apart) by the electromagnetic force. However, when two or more nuclei come very close together (on the order of 1 femto-meter (fm) =10-15 meters), their interaction becomes dominated by another force, the nuclear force, whose intensity is much higher (about 100 times) than the electromagnetic (repulsive) force.

The nuclear force is also known as the strong force or the color force. This is one of the four fundamental forces that govern all the interactions in the Universe.

The nuclear force keeps together the most fundamental of elementary particles known, the quarks, which combine to form the protons and neutrons in the atomic nucleus. The nuclear force also keeps the protons together in the nucleus, despite their mutual electrostatic repulsion. Beyond the distance of 1 fm the nuclear force decreases sharply, becoming practically negligible.

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/sun/Solar_interior/Nuclear_Reactions/Nuclear_forces/strong.html&edu=high

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The nuclear force (or nucleon-nucleon interaction or residual strong force) is the force between two or more nucleons. It is responsible for binding of protons and neutrons into atomic nuclei. To a large extent, this force can be understood in terms of the exchange of light mesons, such as the pions.

Sometimes the nuclear force is called the residual strong force, in contrast to the strong interactions which are now understood to arise from quantum chromodynamics (QCD). This phrasing was forced during the 1970s due to a change in paradigm. Before that time, the strong nuclear force referred to the inter-nucleon potential. After the introduction of the quark model, strong interaction came to mean QCD. Since nucleons have no color charge, the nuclear force does not directly involve the force carriers of quantum chromodynamics, the gluons

Answer 2

http://www.answers.com/topic/nuclear-force