Modern vs Newtonian Physics

The concept of force carrier is central to modern physics crowned by the Standard Model of atomic/nuclear physics, with the force between two particles established by a carrier particle bouncing back and forth. The photon is identified as the carrier of the electromagnetic force and gluons as carriers of the strong nuclear force between protons and neutrons, while the graviton as carrier of the gravitational force has not been identified despite major efforts. 

In contrast, the concept of force carrier has no role to serve in Newtonian physics since forces are either transmitted by instant action by contact or by instant action at distance as gradients of electric or gravitational potentials connected to distributed charges and masses, as discussed in more detail in blog posts under tag New View on Newtonian Gravitation.

It is natural to ask if the concept of force carrier is useful, if carriers of gravitational force are missing and if electromagnetic forces more naturally arise from electric potentials rather than from photons bouncing back and forth as unnatural physics? 

But what about gluons as carriers of the strong nuclear force needed to keep protons and neutrons together in a nucleus?

In recent posts, I have tested the idea that a nucleus can be held together by electromagnetic forces, thus without need of any strong force, in basically the same way an atom is held together by Coulombic interaction between charges of different sign. Computations with RealQM suggest that this may be possible. A nucleus here consists of a central point-like negative charge density (electrons without internal repulsion) surrounded by non-overlapping positive charge densities (protons), with the "compression" of the electrons in fusion releasing massive energy.

In any case, the idea of force carrier presents severe difficulties to modern physics and one way to handle this situation is to give up the idea in a return to Newtonian physics.