On the Role of Up & Down Quarks in Understanding Nuclear Binding Energy (Part I)

Abstract

In a paper published in 2010, the authors proposed that, up quark mass is m_u = 4.4 MeV/c² and down quark mass is m_d = 9.473 MeV/c² and their mass ratio is 0.4645. By considering the harmonic mean of up and down quarks, a new mass unit of 6.0 MeV/c² can be defined. It is suggested that, when A > A_stable, nuclear binding energy is close to k(A + Z) 6.0 MeV where k = 0.74 to 1 and seems to be connected with Z. When A < A_stable nuclear binding energy is close to k(A + Z - δ) 6.0 MeV where δ is a number which seems to be connected with (Z, A, A_stable).

Part I of this two-part article includes: 1. Introduction, 2. About the semi empirical mass formula, 3. Estimation of stable mass number with Proton number, 4. Nuclear binding energy with up and down quark masses, and 5. Discussion.