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Specially, for $p^+ + n \rightarrow \Delta^- + \Delta^{++} + \pi^0$.

I see that charge is conserved. All other conservation rules seem to check out. But, when drawing the Feynman diagram there seem to be two quarks that come from nowhere. Is there a virtual particle that could decay into a neutral pion?

Nihar Karve
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Spacenut
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    Quarks annihilate antiquarks of the same kind to gluons, and, vice versa, gluons create quark-antiquark pairs out of "nowhere", the soupy hadronic medium: yes, gazillions of virtual stuff. The quarks you apparently track are the "valence quarks" conserving fermion number and flavor in the strong interactions. An answer here would not do justice to the magnificent full picture. You wish to read up? – Cosmas Zachos Feb 17 '21 at 00:02
  • Yes, please! Just today I found examples of gluons creating quark antquark pairs out of nowhere. I'd love to read more. – Spacenut Feb 18 '21 at 04:17
  • Try this, and the video of the question. – Cosmas Zachos Feb 18 '21 at 12:27
  • Great video! I love how he said that we tend to overcomplicate nature. It's much simpler than we initially think. – Spacenut Feb 19 '21 at 22:40
  • Back to the question, though. The example I saw from CERN that had a strange quark interacting with a W- boson to become an up quark and then the boson decaying into an anti-up and a down pair. So, I thought that would explain where the pion comes from. It really doesn't though. Any ideas? – Spacenut Feb 19 '21 at 22:44
  • You haven't specified the full reaction. The $W^-\to \pi^-$ , is the simplest option. Is this what you have in mind? – Cosmas Zachos Feb 19 '21 at 23:20
  • I suspect that a virtual boson is formed and then decays to form the quarks for a neutral pion. That's why the W boson isn't included on the left or right side of the equation. I'm just not sure how that would happen. I'm still new to Feynman Diagrams and particle interactions. – Spacenut Feb 20 '21 at 19:58
  • Which equation? There are no strange quarks in what you wrote. Of course any Ws would be virtual. Why are you bothering?? The interaction you are describing is strong.... – Cosmas Zachos Feb 20 '21 at 20:06

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