Please tell me if fundamental particles (Electron,Proton & Neutrons) are compressible?
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What do you mean by compressible? – Yashas Jul 04 '17 at 16:00
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I don't think you can even mention electrons here because electrons don't really have size or a substructure. Here is a paper that talks about the possibility of deformed neutrons in neutron stars: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1108.1859v1.pdf – Hritik Narayan Jul 04 '17 at 16:02
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Means they can change it volume? – Saif KhAn Jul 04 '17 at 16:02
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OK! Except electrons – Saif KhAn Jul 04 '17 at 16:04
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Also, for insight, read DavidZ's answer: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/81190/whats-inside-a-proton/81284 – Hritik Narayan Jul 04 '17 at 16:05
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To compress an object means to reduce the amount of space between the particles that make it up. So no. – Señor O Jul 04 '17 at 16:28
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By the way, neutrons and protons are in no way fundamental. They are both made up of quarks, uud and udd. – Wrichik Basu Jul 04 '17 at 16:35
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By definition, fundamental particles are point particles with no volume, so they can't get any smaller. So no, they're not compressible.
Also, protons and neutrons aren't fundamental particles; they're made up of quarks and gluons.
tparker
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Have you heard of neutron stars? They are made of a liquid of neutrons [*], packed together with a density similar to that of atomic nuclei. The pressure in a neutron star ranges from $10^{28}$ to $10^{30}$ atmospheres but we have all the reasons to believe that the neutrons in there are exactly like those we know on Earth. That should illustrate nicely how utterly incompressible are neutrons, at least!
[*] They are the ultimate fate of massive stars (10$\times$ to 30$\times$ heavier than our Sun), after they explode in a supernova.
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And in atoms with increasing number of electrons in a shell the diameter of the atom shrinks. Hence the cross section of the electron shrinks. Perhaps this could be interpreted as a compression too? – HolgerFiedler Jul 04 '17 at 19:07
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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/43/Kovalente_Atomradien_auf_Basis_der_Cambridge_Structural_Database.svg/1280px-Kovalente_Atomradien_auf_Basis_der_Cambridge_Structural_Database.svg.png – HolgerFiedler Jul 05 '17 at 04:59
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And density of a Black hole? It have many atoms in it, If they are not compressible at fundamental level then the black holes volume increases as increase in no. of atos – Saif KhAn Jul 21 '18 at 08:24