Figure 2 (IMAGE)

Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe

Figure 2

Caption

The left side shows if pions were heavy, they would not be able to mediate a strong force between two protons, and as a result the protons would move away from one another. The right side shows how light-weight pions in the real world are able to bind two protons together by mediating a strong force between them. In other words, if pions were not light-weight, protons and neutrons would not be able to bind together to form nuclei, and the only atoms in the Universe would be single proton hydrogen atoms.

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Kavli IPMU

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