Hadron

### Uses

Altering hadron makeup can be used to change the mass of nuclei, and hence the mass of objects.

**Hadrons** are composite particles made up of quarks. They are held together by the Strong Force, sometimes with the assistance of Ligism. Hadrons can combine to form polyhadrons such as nuclei, also held together by the Strong Force, which are the basis of atoms. Of all the hadrons, only two are stable in nature: The proton and the neutron (along with their antimatter equivalents). All others have half lives of fractions of a second, meaning they have to be artificially stabilized using time dilation or Ligism.

## Characteristics

All hadrons are made of quarks and/or antiquarks. There are two main families of hadrons: Those with odd-numbers of quarks and those with even numbers of quarks. Those with odd numbers are usually easier to create and stabilize, due to the fact that those with even numbers almost always contain antiquarks, which result in their swift destruction through annihilation.

The most common types of hadron are mesons and baryons, mesons being made up of a quark and an antiquark, and baryons being made up of three quarks. Baryons are the most common components of nuclei, whereas mesons almost exclusively act as vector particles, often for the Strong Force but also for Ligism. Larger hadrons also exist, although these are harder to create and stabilize.

## Varieties

Due to the fact that they are not combined with other quarks, free quarks are not considered to be hadrons.

### Mesons

Mesons are hadrons composed of a single *n*-quark and a single antiquark. They are most often found acting as vectors for forces, carrying the force's guage boson within them. The most common meson in nature is the pion, a particle that transmits the gluons between protons and neutrons within nuclei. The term meson can also be used to describe larger hadrons with even numbers of n-quarks and antiquarks.

### Biquarks

Biquarks are similar to mesons, differing in that their quarks are all of the same type of matter, not n-quarks and antiquarks combined. They are also known as *pure mesons*.

### Baryons

Baryons are hadrons composed of three quarks (or three different antiquarks, producing an antibaryon). These are the most common type of hadron and the easiest to create and stabilize. Protons and neutrons, the only hadrons that are naturally stable, are baryons. Baryons can be combined to create nuclei, the basis of atoms.

### Tetraquarks

"Tetraquark" is a generic term for a hadron consisting of four quarks. There are several types. *Pure tetraquarks* are tetraquarks consisting of only one type of matter, either n-matter or antimatter. *Tainted tetraquarks* are tetraquarks where one of the quarks is a different type of matter. *Meson tetraquarks* or *bimesons* are tetraquarks with 2 n-quarks and 2 antiquarks.

### Pentaquarks

Pentaquarks are hadrons consisting of 5 quarks, with varying numbers of n-quarks and antiquarks. *Pure pentaquarks* are pentaquarks with only n-quarks or only antiquarks.

### Hexaquarks

Hexaquarks are hadrons consisting of 6 quarks, with varying number of n-quarks and antiquarks. *Pure hexaquarks* are hexaquarks with only n-quarks or only antiquarks, while *meson hexaquarks* or *trimesons* are hexaquarks with 3 n-quarks and 3 antiquarks.

### Larger hadrons

Larger hadrons also exist, but they are progressively more and more difficult to synthesize.

## Hadron-quark polymers

These were long chains of quarks arranged in a manner similar to a very long hadron.

These were one of the more advanced methods of generating Equilism, although they required top quarks to function and hence themselves required Equilism to work.