Quantum chromodynamics

Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory describing one of the fundamental forces, the strong interaction. It describes the interactions of quarks and gluons and takes the form of a quantum field theory of a special kind called a non-abelian gauge theory. QCD forms an important part of the standard model of particle physics. A huge body of experimental evidence for QCD has been gathered over the years.

See also

• For overviews see standard model, its field theoretical formulation, strong interactions, quarks and gluons, hadrons, confinement, QCD matter, or quark-gluon plasma.
• For details see gauge theory, quantization procedure including BRST and Faddeev-Popov ghosts. A more general category is quantum field theory.
• For techniques see Lattice QCD, 1/N expansion, perturbative QCD, heavy quark effective theory, chiral models, Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model.
• For experiments see quark search experiments, deep inelastic scattering, jet physics, quark-gluon plasma.