system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Is there such a thing as strong force potential energy, and in what situations can this effect be seen?

When two masses are moved apart, there is gravitational potential energy; when two (unlike) electrical charges are moved apart, there is electromagnetic/ chemical potential energy. Is the any situation, presumably within or between protons and neutrons, in which a similar kind of potential energy is seen for the strong force?

Does this have anything to do with fusion, fission, or radioactive decay?
gpt
Yup! There indeed exists such a description though it is only useful as an approximation of quark behavior:  

> V = -k*_1_*/r +k*_2_*r  

As quarks carry electric charge, k*_1_* corresponds to the Coulomb interaction. As quarks carry color charge k*_2_* corresponds to the color force. Notice the situation of asymptotic freedom—the color potential goes to zero the close the quarks are and blows up for large distances. The color force gets stronger as we try to separate quarks.  

This is related to the concept of color confinement where quark systems are restricted to those which do not have free quarks, the strong force explains protons and neutrons why we have atoms in the first place.