Gluons

Gluons are the carrier particle for strong interactions. They are responsible for the binding force that confines all color-charged particles to form hadrons, such as protons, neutrons and pions. The resulting hadrons have no net color charge.

Nuclear Forces

Residual strong interactions between the color-charge neutral hadrons are responsible for the "strong nuclear force" -- the force that binds protons and neutrons together to form nuclei. All of modern particle physics was discovered in the effort to understand this force!

Residual strong interactions also are responsible for Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire and fusion processes and for the most rapid decay processes of many hadrons.

These residual strong interactions have short range. They occur via exchange of mesons, or because two hadrons come close enough together that they overlap and constituents of one hadron can directly feel forces from constituents of the other hadron.