Sean Carroll has a [video about gauge theory][1] (2020) in his series about *Greatest Ideas of the Universe*, where he claims that early in the development of quantum chromodynamics, some physicists tried to impose a different color charge scheme: red, white and blue, instead of the usual [additive color][2] scheme red, green, blue. Taken from the transcript [minute 3]: > [...] quarks come in three colors. Of course the idea of colors, let's say: red, green and blue (There was a brief movement movement to make it red, white and blue, but that was considered a little jingoistic so red, green and blue was a little bit more physics oriented). This is an idea from Murray Gell-Mann, the famous physicist. He was one of the co-inventors of quarks and the idea is [...] Are there sources to back this up? Why would somebody use white instead of green? [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuqKsBQnE2A&ab_channel=SeanCarroll [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Additive_color