The strong nuclear force, carried only by the neutron and proton, is the strongest attractive force known to mankind yet. Its range is about 10-13 cm (one fermis). It has little effect from more than a few fermis from a nucleus, and at distances smaller than about 0.4 fermi it becomes strongly repulsive. This region, called the hard core of the strong nuclear force, is responsible for the density of nuclear matter.

The weak nuclear force is involved in nuclear decay processes and in interactions involving the basic particle called the neutrino. No complete theory combining the fundamental forces has yet been developed, but current theoretical work in particle physics is attempting to devise the grand unification theories which will do so.

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