In one sense that seems to be something you really can't do. The force between free quarks increases with distance to about 10,000N, then remains constant (no, I have no idea how this makes any sense, but it's what I read).
IAAP, and you can "separate" a nucleon into constituent quarks in a sense. You're right in that you can't take them a kilometer apart because of the range behavior of the strong nuclear force that you cite. Instead, you create extremely high energy density region that makes the nucleons lose their identity, and the constituent quarks are free to interact with each other (a Quark-Gluon Plasma). This is done by colliding heavy ions, which creates a high energy density region that has some extent to it (as opposed to proton-proton collisions). The quarks can then "condense" out of this plasma into exotic things like pentaquarks.
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In one sense that seems to be something you really can't do. The force between free quarks increases with distance to about 10,000N, then remains constant (no, I have no idea how this makes any sense, but it's what I read).
IAAP, and you can "separate" a nucleon into constituent quarks in a sense. You're right in that you can't take them a kilometer apart because of the range behavior of the strong nuclear force that you cite. Instead, you create extremely high energy density region that makes the nucleons lose their identity, and the constituent quarks are free to interact with each other (a Quark-Gluon Plasma). This is done by colliding heavy ions, which creates a high energy density region that has some extent to it (as opposed to proton-proton collisions). The quarks can then "condense" out of this plasma into exotic things like pentaquarks.