Physics Asked on February 16, 2021
No one has observed before a "free" quark, i.e. a quark in an unbound state. According to one paper, I read that $pbar{p}$ collision produce unbound $tbar{t}$ pair which quickly decay into other particles. But some people argue that the produced $tbar{t}$ pairs decay so quickly that they had no time to bind! And I agree with this idea.
So why can one not find quarks in unbound states?
This is because the force-versus-distance law for quarks is such that the farther away from one another you pull a pair of quarks, the harder they attract one another. It is as if they were attached to each other with a rubber band (a very stiff one!). If you pull them far enough apart, there's enough energy stored in the system to create a new pair of quarks (i.e., the rubber band snaps) which pair up with the others and instead of getting two "free" quarks, you get a pair of mesons with two quarks inside each one.
Correct answer by niels nielsen on February 16, 2021
Quarks that are lighter than the QCD scale, ($sim 200,{rm MeV}$) will always be confined, but heavier ones can be unbound. The top quark weighs $170,{rm GeV}$, so it can be unbound.
The QCD scale is the mass scale that pops out when you renormalize the strong interactions.
Answered by Eric David Kramer on February 16, 2021
If you want a more descriptive and a simple mathematical treatment using the formulation of electrodynamics and quantum mechanics, then Leonard Susskind's series of lectures will give you a lot of insights!!
Here is the Link : https://inspirehep.net/literature/1532
Answered by Ashwin Balaji on February 16, 2021
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