Up quark ($u$)

The up quark $u$ is the first-generation up-type quark, with electric charge $+2e/3$, spin $1/2$ and baryon number $1/3$. It is a light quark, and the up quark and down quark together account for the net valence flavor content of ordinary nuclei.^[ref]

The minimal proton content $uud$ has total charge $2(2e/3)-e/3=e$ and baryon number one. The proton's mass is not simply the sum of three free-quark masses: its interacting quark and gluon fields carry most of its energy. The quark model organizes the flavor content, while quantum chromodynamics describes the dynamics needed to compute hadron properties.