Hadron Masses

In general only a small part of the mass of a hadron (such as a proton) is due to the rest-mass of the quarks in it. Some of the mass of a hadron comes from the kinetic energy of the quarks due to confinement.

The volume of a hadron is small. By the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, the kinetic energy of the quark is inversely proportional to the radius of its confinement. So the smaller the confinement, the larger the kinetic energy of the quarks. This energy contributes to the mass of the hadron (E=mc^2).

mesons baryons


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