What if physicists had imagined that a neutron inside a nucleus might split into a positive and a negative charge? Deuterium is a hydrogen atom with a proton and a neutron. If it had one negative charge and two positive charges, at equilibrium with the negative charge halfway between the two positive charges, there would be four times the force pulling the protons together than their repulsion pushes them apart. We would still need a force to keep them from collapsing, but no new force to pull them together. A helium-4 nucleus has two protons and two neutrons. This would be two negative charges and four positive charges. They might form a flattened octahedron, with six corners. For stationary charges, the two negative charges are balanced when their distance from the center is about 43% that of the positive charges. Closer and they repel, farther and they attract. When their distance is more than 79% then the positive charges repel each other more, and presumably the whole thing would fall apart. Low-energy alpha particles might attract each other, positive-to-negative corners, and form some sort of crystal structure. Or there could be some other crystal structure. People naturally think that you can’t have a subatomic structure with net positive charge. But you can, because of inverse square attraction. When they postulated the strong force, did they simply not think of this? Now the strong force is baked into everything, and is assumed to be a fundamental independent force in the universe. All experimental results are consistent with it, because all experimental results were interpreted in terms of its presence. It would be a giant effort to redo physics without it, and probably no one will make that effort. Did they not think of this? Or did they consider this and reject it because they found reasons it just did not work?
What if physicists had imagined that a neutron inside a nucleus might split into a positive and a negative charge?
Deuterium is a hydrogen atom with a proton and a neutron. If it had one negative charge and two positive charges, at equilibrium with the negative charge halfway between the two positive charges, there would be four times the force pulling the protons together than their repulsion pushes them apart. We would still need a force to keep them from collapsing, but no new force to pull them together.
A helium-4 nucleus has two protons and two neutrons. This would be two negative charges and four positive charges. They might form a flattened octahedron, with six corners.
For stationary charges, the two negative charges are balanced when their distance from the center is about 43% that of the positive charges. Closer and they repel, farther and they attract. When their distance is more than 79% then the positive charges repel each other more, and presumably the whole thing would fall apart.
Low-energy alpha particles might attract each other, positive-to-negative corners, and form some sort of crystal structure. Or there could be some other crystal structure.
People naturally think that you can’t have a subatomic structure with net positive charge. But you can, because of inverse square attraction.
When they postulated the strong force, did they simply not think of this? Now the strong force is baked into everything, and is assumed to be a fundamental independent force in the universe. All experimental results are consistent with it, because all experimental results were interpreted in terms of its presence. It would be a giant effort to redo physics without it, and probably no one will make that effort.
Did they not think of this? Or did they consider this and reject it because they found reasons it just did not work?