Volume 20: Pages 113-118, 2007

Derivation of Intranucleon Charges Using a Modified Coulomb Force and Newtonian Gravitation

Lin Sten ¹

¹Mathematics Department, Palomar College, San Marcos, CA 92069‐1487 USA

We assume that an atom's nucleons are each composed of unspecified amounts of positive and negative charge. We modify the Coulomb force by assuming the Coulomb constant is replaced by three constants that apply to positive‐negative, positive‐positive, and negative‐negative charge interactions, respectively. We then derive an expression for the modified Coulomb force between two electrically neutral masses. We assume that this modified Coulomb force is equal to the Newtonian gravitational force. Based on these three assumptions, we use classical mechanics to derive and minimize the energy due to the charge composition as a means to determine the amounts of positive and negative charge composing each nucleon. The resulting amounts are consistent with the quark model. An analogous derivation uses the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, and the results are similar. Understanding these surprising results might provide a clue to the unification of electromagnetic force and gravitation.

Keywords: protons and neutrons, quarks, electrostatics, relativity and gravitation

Received: April 26, 2006; Published Online: January 8, 2009