In this representation, each baryon consists of three quarks or antiquarks shown as triangles within the larger circle. | |
The colors of each quark represent a property physicists call color. The quarks aren't really colored, but it is a convenient way to represent the property. Quarks can be red, blue, or green while antiquarks can be yellow, cyan, or magenta. | |
The three quarks or antiquarks in a baryon must have different colors and combine to make white. Baryons cannot be made from a mixture of quark and antiquark colors. For example, a mixture of two antiquark colors (yellow and magenta) and one quark color (green) would not mix to make white so it is illegal. |