Comment by dvsfish
2 years ago
I literally was just having a foggy version of this exact same thought whilst reading the article. Especially
> "Researchers recently discovered that the proton sometimes includes a charm quark and charm antiquark, colossal particles that are each heavier than the proton itself."
You articulated my feeling better than I could. Surely this is something the researchers have accounted for and there's a good explanation (whether I can actually understand it is another story)
https://profmattstrassler.com/2022/09/09/protons-and-charm-q...
It's explained better here.
tl;dr; is that they are virtual particles and don't have the same mass as a "real" charm quark.