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You can say that the charge of the electron is contained in a sphere with radius less than 10 ^(-18)m and is assumed to be a point in the current theory.

However at LHC protons are used not electrons.
Protons have a diameter of about 10^(-15)m. Of course not the protons, but the quarks and at LHC even mainly the gluons are colliding.

For the non-experts, the following picture is an illustration of a proton by the Oxford Hera group's website.

The dots are quarks. In a proton quarks minus antiquarks net 3 quarks. The springs represent gluons. The lower energy you count the more gluons are there. These are the "force particles" of the strong interaction, which holds as well nuclei together, and have the interesting property that they carry as well strong charge.

The best known "force particle" is the photon, which is the carrier of the electromagnetic interaction. Others are gravitons (not yet directly observed, but who doubts they exist), and the W (Z) bosons, the carrier of the weak interaction, which are the only force particles known which have mass.

Der Amerikaner ist die Orchidee unter den Menschen
Volker Pispers

by Martin (weiser.mensch(at)googlemail.com) on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 10:17:12 AM EST
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