Current quark mass The current quark mass is also called the mass of the 'naked' quarks. The mass of the current quark is reduced by the term of the constituent quark covering mass. The current quark mass is a logical consequence of the mathematical formalism of the quantum field theory (QFT), so the idea does not arise from a strictly descriptive report of observations. The current quark masses of the light current quarks are much smaller than the constituent quark masses. Reason for this is the missing of the mass of the constituent quark covering. The current quark mass is a parameter to compute sufficiently small color charges. Definition The current quark mass means the mass of the constituent quark with the mass of the respective constituent quark covering subtracted away. There is almost no difference between current quark mass and constituent quark mass for the heavy quarks; this is not at all the case for the light quarks. The comparison of the results of the computations with the experimental data supplies the values for the current quark masses. Footnotes References Quarks