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Elementary particle

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This article is about the physics concept. For the novel, see The Elementary Particles.
Elementary particles included in the Standard Model

In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a particle whose substructure is unknown; thus, it is unknown whether it is composed of other particles.[1] Known elementary particles include the fundamental fermions (quarks, leptons, antiquarks, and antileptons), which generally are "matter particles" and "antimatter particles", as well as the fundamental bosons (gauge bosons and the Higgs boson), which generally are "force particles" that mediate interactions among fermions.[1] A particle containing two or more elementary particles is a composite particle.

Everyday matter is composed of atoms, once presumed to be matter's elementary particles—atom meaning "unable to cut" in Greek—although the atom's existence remained controversial until about 1910, as some leading physicists regarded molecules as mathematical illusions, and matter as ultimately composed of energy.[1][2] Soon, subatomic constituents of the atom were identified. As the 1930s opened, the electron and the proton had been observed, along with the photon, the particle of electromagnetic radiation.[1] At that time, the recent advent of quantum mechanics was radically altering the conception of particles, as a single particle could seemingly span a field as would a wave, a paradox still eluding satisfactory explanation.[3][4][5]

Via quantum theory, protons and neutrons were found to contain quarks—up quarks and down quarks—now considered elementary particles.[1] And within a molecule, the electron's three degrees of freedom (charge, spin, orbital) can separate via wavefunction into three quasiparticles (holon, spinon, orbiton).[6] Yet a free electron—which, not orbiting an atomic nucleus, lacks orbital motion—appears unsplittable and remains regarded as an elementary particle.[6]

Around 1980, an elementary particle's status as indeed elementary—an ultimate constituent of substance—was mostly discarded for a more practical outlook,[1] embodied in particle physics' Standard Model, science's most experimentally successful theory.[5][7] Many elaborations upon and theories beyond the Standard Model, including the extremely popular supersymmetry, double the number of elementary particles by hypothesizing that each known particle associates with a "shadow" partner far more massive,[8][9] although all such superpartners remain undiscovered.[7][10] Meanwhile, an elementary boson mediating gravitation—the graviton—remains hypothetical.[1]

Overview

Main article: Standard Model
See also: Physics beyond the Standard Model

All elementary particles are—depending on their spin—either bosons or fermions. These are differentiated via the spin–statistics theorem of quantum statistics. Particles of half-integer spin exhibit Fermi–Dirac statistics and are fermions.[1] Particles of integer spin, in other words full-integer, exhibit Bose–Einstein statistics and are bosons.[1]

Elementary particles
Elementary fermionsHalf-integer spinObey the Fermi–Dirac statisticsElementary bosonsInteger spinObey the Bose–Einstein statistics
Quarks and antiquarksSpin = ⁠1/2⁠Have color chargeParticipate in strong interactions and electroweak interactionsLeptons and antileptonsSpin = ⁠1/2⁠No color chargeElectroweak interactionsGauge bosonsSpin = 1, 2 [‡] Force carriersScalar bosonsSpin = 0
Three generations
  1. Electron (
    e−
    ), [†]
    Electron neutrino (
    ν
    e    )
  2. Muon (
    μ−
    ),
    Muon neutrino (
    ν
    μ    )
  3. Tau (
    τ−
    ),
    Tau neutrino (
    ν
    τ    )
One kind

Higgs boson (
H0
)

Notes:
[†] An anti-electron (
e+
) is conventionally called a "positron".
[‡] The known force carrier bosons all have spin = 1. The hypothetical graviton has spin = 2; it is unknown whether it is a gauge boson as well. A particle's mass is quantified in units of energy versus the electron's (electronvolts). Through conversion of energy into mass, any particle can be produced through collision of other particles at high energy,[1][11] although the output particle might not contain the input particles, for instance matter creation from colliding photons. Likewise, the composite fermions protons were collided at nearly light speed to produce the relatively more massive Higgs boson.[11] The most massive elementary particle, the top quark, rapidly decays, but apparently does not contain, lighter particles.

When probed at energies available in experiments, particles exhibit spherical sizes. In operating particle physics' Standard Model, elementary particles are usually represented for predictive utility as point particles, which, as zero-dimensional, lack spatial extension. Though extremely successful, the Standard Model is limited to the microcosm by its omission of gravitation, and has some parameters arbitrarily added but unexplained.[12] Seeking to resolve those shortcomings, string theory posits that elementary particles are ultimately composed of one-dimensional energy strings whose absolute minimum size is the Planck length.

Common elementary particles

Main article: cosmic abundance of elements

According to the current models of big bang nucleosynthesis, the primordial composition of visible matter of the universe should be about 75% hydrogen and 25% helium-4 (in mass). Neutrons are made up of one up and two down quark, while protons are made of two up and one down quark. Since the other common elementary particles (such as electrons, neutrinos, or weak bosons) are so light or so rare when compared to atomic nuclei, we can neglect their mass contribution to the observable universe's total mass. Therefore, one can conclude that most of the visible mass of the universe consists of protons and neutrons, which, like all baryons, in turn consist of up quarks and down quarks.

Some estimates imply that there are roughly 1080 baryons (almost entirely protons and neutrons) in the observable universe.[13][14][15]

The number of protons in the observable universe is called the Eddington number.

In terms of number of particles, some estimates imply that nearly all the matter, excluding dark matter, occurs in neutrinos, and that roughly 1086 elementary particles of matter exist in the visible universe, mostly neutrinos.[15] Other estimates imply that roughly 1097 elementary particles exist in the visible universe (not including dark matter), mostly photons, gravitons, and other massless force carriers.[15]

Standard Model

Main article: Standard Model
Graphic representation of the standard model. Spin, charge, mass and participation in different force interactions are shown. Click on the image to see the full description

The Standard Model of particle physics contains 12 flavors of elementary fermions, plus their corresponding antiparticles, as well as elementary bosons that mediate the forces and the Higgs boson, which was reported on July 4, 2012, as having been likely detected by the two main experiments at the LHC (ATLAS and CMS). However, the Standard Model is widely considered to be a provisional theory rather than a truly fundamental one, since it is not known if it is compatible with Einstein's general relativity. There may be hypothetical elementary particles not described by the Standard Model, such as the graviton, the particle that would carry the gravitational force, and sparticles, supersymmetric partners of the ordinary particles.

Fundamental fermions

Main article: Fermion

The 12 fundamental fermionic flavours are divided into three generations of four particles each. Six of the particles are quarks. The remaining six are leptons, three of which are neutrinos, and the remaining three of which have an electric charge of −1: the electron and its two cousins, the muon and the tau.

Particle Generations
Leptons
First generation Second generation Third generation
Name Symbol Name Symbol Name Symbol
electron
e−
 muon
μ−
 tau
τ−
electron neutrino
ν
e		 muon neutrino
ν
μ		 tau neutrino
ν
τ
Quarks
First generation Second generation Third generation
up quark
u
 charm quark c top quark
t
down quark
d
 strange quark
s
 bottom quark
b

Antiparticles

Main article: Antimatter

There are also 12 fundamental fermionic antiparticles that correspond to these 12 particles. For example, the antielectron (positron)
e+
 is the electron's antiparticle and has an electric charge of +1.

Particle Generations
Antileptons
First generation Second generation Third generation
Name Symbol Name Symbol Name Symbol
positron
e+
 antimuon
μ+
 antitau
τ+
electron antineutrino
ν
e		 muon antineutrino
ν
μ		 tau antineutrino
ν
τ
Antiquarks
First generation Second generation Third generation
up antiquark
u
 charm antiquark
c
 top antiquark
t
down antiquark
d
 strange antiquark
s
 bottom antiquark
b

Quarks

Main article: Quark

Isolated quarks and antiquarks have never been detected, a fact explained by confinement. Every quark carries one of three color charges of the strong interaction; antiquarks similarly carry anticolor. Color-charged particles interact via gluon exchange in the same way that charged particles interact via photon exchange. However, gluons are themselves color-charged, resulting in an amplification of the strong force as color-charged particles are separated. Unlike the electromagnetic force, which diminishes as charged particles separate, color-charged particles feel increasing force.

However, color-charged particles may combine to form color neutral composite particles called hadrons. A quark may pair up with an antiquark: the quark has a color and the antiquark has the corresponding anticolor. The color and anticolor cancel out, forming a color neutral meson. Alternatively, three quarks can exist together, one quark being "red", another "blue", another "green". These three colored quarks together form a color-neutral baryon. Symmetrically, three antiquarks with the colors "antired", "antiblue" and "antigreen" can form a color-neutral antibaryon.

Quarks also carry fractional electric charges, but, since they are confined within hadrons whose charges are all integral, fractional charges have never been isolated. Note that quarks have electric charges of either +2⁄3 or −1⁄3, whereas antiquarks have corresponding electric charges of either −2⁄3 or +1⁄3.

Evidence for the existence of quarks comes from deep inelastic scattering: firing electrons at nuclei to determine the distribution of charge within nucleons (which are baryons). If the charge is uniform, the electric field around the proton should be uniform and the electron should scatter elastically. Low-energy electrons do scatter in this way, but, above a particular energy, the protons deflect some electrons through large angles. The recoiling electron has much less energy and a jet of particles is emitted. This inelastic scattering suggests that the charge in the proton is not uniform but split among smaller charged particles: quarks.

Fundamental bosons

Main article: Boson

In the Standard Model, vector (spin-1) bosons (gluons, photons, and the W and Z bosons) mediate forces, whereas the Higgs boson (spin-0) is responsible for the intrinsic mass of particles. Bosons differ from fermions in the fact that multiple bosons can occupy the same quantum state (Pauli exclusion principle). Also, bosons can be either elementary, like photons, or a combination, like mesons. The spin of bosons are integers instead of half integers.

Gluons

Main article: Gluon

Gluons mediate the strong interaction, which join quarks and thereby form hadrons, which are either baryons (three quarks) or mesons (one quark and one antiquark). Protons and neutrons are baryons, joined by gluons to form the atomic nucleus. Like quarks, gluons exhibit colour and anticolour—unrelated to the concept of visual color—sometimes in combinations, altogether eight variations of gluons.

Electroweak bosons

Main articles: W and Z bosons and Photon

There are three weak gauge bosons: W+, W−, and Z0; these mediate the weak interaction. The W bosons are known for their mediation in nuclear decay. The W− converts a neutron into a proton then decay into an electron and electron antineutrino pair. The Z0 does not convert charge but rather changes momentum and is the only mechanism for elastically scattering neutrinos. The weak gauge bosons were discovered due to momentum change in electrons from neutrino-Z exchange. The massless photon mediates the electromagnetic interaction. These four gauge bosons form the electroweak interaction among elementary particles.

Higgs boson

Main article: Higgs boson

Although the weak and electromagnetic forces appear quite different to us at everyday energies, the two forces are theorized to unify as a single electroweak force at high energies. This prediction was clearly confirmed by measurements of cross-sections for high-energy electron-proton scattering at the HERA collider at DESY. The differences at low energies is a consequence of the high masses of the W and Z bosons, which in turn are a consequence of the Higgs mechanism. Through the process of spontaneous symmetry breaking, the Higgs selects a special direction in electroweak space that causes three electroweak particles to become very heavy (the weak bosons) and one to remain massless (the photon). On 4 July 2012, after many years of experimentally searching for evidence of its existence, the Higgs boson was announced to have been observed at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. Peter Higgs who first posited the existence of the Higgs boson was present at the announcement.[16] The Higgs boson is believed to have a mass of approximately 125 GeV.[17] The statistical significance of this discovery was reported as 5-sigma, which implies a certainty of roughly 99.99994%. In particle physics, this is the level of significance required to officially label experimental observations as a discovery. Research into the properties of the newly discovered particle continues.

Graviton

Main article: Graviton

The graviton is hypothesized to mediate gravitation, but remains undiscovered and yet is sometimes included in tables of elementary particles.[1] Its spin would be two—thus a boson—and it would lack charge or mass. Besides mediating an extremely feeble force, the graviton would have its own antiparticle[citation needed] and rapidly annihilate, rendering its detection extremely difficult even if it exists.

Beyond the Standard Model

Although experimental evidence overwhelmingly confirms the predictions derived from the Standard Model, some of its parameters were added arbitrarily, not determined by a particular explanation, which remain mysteries, for instance the hierarchy problem. Theories beyond the Standard Model attempt to resolve these shortcomings.

Grand unification

Main article: Grand Unified Theory

One extension of the Standard Model attempts to combine the electroweak interaction with the strong interaction into a single 'grand unified theory' (GUT). Such a force would be spontaneously broken into the three forces by a Higgs-like mechanism. The most dramatic prediction of grand unification is the existence of X and Y bosons, which cause proton decay. However, the non-observation of proton decay at the Super-Kamiokande neutrino observatory rules out the simplest GUTs, including SU(5) and SO(10).

Supersymmetry

Main article: Supersymmetry

Supersymmetry extends the Standard Model by adding another class of symmetries to the Lagrangian. These symmetries exchange fermionic particles with bosonic ones. Such a symmetry predicts the existence of supersymmetric particles, abbreviated as sparticles, which include the sleptons, squarks, neutralinos, and charginos. Each particle in the Standard Model would have a superpartner whose spin differs by 1⁄2 from the ordinary particle. Due to the breaking of supersymmetry, the sparticles are much heavier than their ordinary counterparts; they are so heavy that existing particle colliders would not be powerful enough to produce them. However, some physicists believe that sparticles will be detected by the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

String theory

Main article: String theory

String theory is a model of physics where all "particles" that make up matter are composed of strings (measuring at the Planck length) that exist in an 11-dimensional (according to M-theory, the leading version) or 12-dimensional (according to F-theory[18]) universe. These strings vibrate at different frequencies that determine mass, electric charge, color charge, and spin. A string can be open (a line) or closed in a loop (a one-dimensional sphere, like a circle). As a string moves through space it sweeps out something called a world sheet. String theory predicts 1- to 10-branes (a 1-brane being a string and a 10-brane being a 10-dimensional object) that prevent tears in the "fabric" of space using the uncertainty principle (e.g., the electron orbiting a hydrogen atom has the probability, albeit small, that it could be anywhere else in the universe at any given moment).

String theory proposes that our universe is merely a 4-brane, inside which exist the 3 space dimensions and the 1 time dimension that we observe. The remaining 6 theoretical dimensions either are very tiny and curled up (and too small to be macroscopically accessible) or simply do not/cannot exist in our universe (because they exist in a grander scheme called the "multiverse" outside our known universe).

Some predictions of the string theory include existence of extremely massive counterparts of ordinary particles due to vibrational excitations of the fundamental string and existence of a massless spin-2 particle behaving like the graviton.

Technicolor

Main article: Technicolor (physics)

Technicolor theories try to modify the Standard Model in a minimal way by introducing a new QCD-like interaction. This means one adds a new theory of so-called Techniquarks, interacting via so called Technigluons. The main idea is that the Higgs-Boson is not an elementary particle but a bound state of these objects.

Preon theory

Main article: Preon

According to preon theory there are one or more orders of particles more fundamental than those (or most of those) found in the Standard Model. The most fundamental of these are normally called preons, which is derived from "pre-quarks". In essence, preon theory tries to do for the Standard Model what the Standard Model did for the particle zoo that came before it. Most models assume that almost everything in the Standard Model can be explained in terms of three to half a dozen more fundamental particles and the rules that govern their interactions. Interest in preons has waned since the simplest models were experimentally ruled out in the 1980s.

Acceleron theory

Accelerons are the hypothetical subatomic particles that integrally link the newfound mass of the neutrino to the dark energy conjectured to be accelerating the expansion of the universe.[19]

In theory, neutrinos are influenced by a new force resulting from their interactions with accelerons. Dark energy results as the universe tries to pull neutrinos apart.[19]

See also

Template:Wikipedia books

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Sylvie Braibant; Giorgio Giacomelli; Maurizio Spurio (2012). Particles and Fundamental Interactions: An Introduction to Particle Physics (2nd ed.). Springer. pp. 1–3. ISBN 978-94-007-2463-1.
  2. ^ Ronald Newburgh; Joseph Peidle; Wolfgang Rueckner (2006). "Einstein, Perrin, and the reality of atoms: 1905 revisited" (PDF). American Journal of Physics. 74 (6): 478–481. Bibcode:2006AmJPh..74..478N. doi:10.1119/1.2188962.
  3. ^ Friedel Weinert (2004). The Scientist as Philosopher: Philosophical Consequences of Great Scientific Discoveries. Springer. p. 43. ISBN 978-3-540-20580-7.
  4. ^ Friedel Weinert (2004). The Scientist as Philosopher: Philosophical Consequences of Great Scientific Discoveries. Springer. pp. 57–59. ISBN 978-3-540-20580-7.
  5. ^ a b Meinard Kuhlmann (24 Jul 2013). "Physicists debate whether the world is made of particles or fields—or something else entirely". Scientific American.
  6. ^ a b Zeeya Merali (18 Apr 2012). "Not-quite-so elementary, my dear electron: Fundamental particle 'splits' into quasiparticles, including the new 'orbiton'". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2012.10471.
  7. ^ a b Ian O'Neill (24 Jul 2013). "LHC discovery maims supersymmetry, again". Discovery News. Retrieved 2013-08-28.
  8. ^ Particle Data Group. "Unsolved mysteries—supersymmetry". The Particle Adventure. Berkeley Lab. Retrieved 2013-08-28.
  9. ^ National Research Council (2006). Revealing the Hidden Nature of Space and Time: Charting the Course for Elementary Particle Physics. National Academies Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-309-66039-6.
  10. ^ "CERN latest data shows no sign of supersymmetry—yet". Phys.Org. 25 Jul 2013. Retrieved 2013-08-28.
  11. ^ a b Ryan Avent (19 Jul 2012). "The Q&A: Brian Greene—Life after the Higgs". The Economist. Retrieved 2013-08-28.
  12. ^ Sylvie Braibant; Giorgio Giacomelli; Maurizio Spurio (2012). Particles and Fundamental Interactions: An Introduction to Particle Physics (2nd ed.). Springer. p. 384. ISBN 978-94-007-2463-1.
  13. ^ Frank Heile. "Is the Total Number of Particles in the Universe Stable Over Long Periods of Time?". 2014.
  14. ^ Jared Brooks. "Galaxies and Cosmology". 2014. p. 4, equation 16.
  15. ^ a b c Robert Munafo (24 Jul 2013). "Notable Properties of Specific Numbers". Retrieved 2013-08-28.
  16. ^ Lizzy Davies (4 July 2014). "Higgs boson announcement live: CERN scientists discover subatomic particle". The Guardian. Retrieved 2012-07-06.
  17. ^ Lucas Taylor (4 Jul 2014). "Observation of a new particle with a mass of 125 GeV". CMS. Retrieved 2012-07-06.
  18. ^ Cumrun Vafa. "Evidence for F-theory." Nucl.Phys. B469: 403-418,1996 DOI:10.1016/0550-3213(96)00172-1. arXiv: hep-th/9602022
  19. ^ a b "New theory links neutrino's slight mass to accelerating Universe expansion". ScienceDaily. 28 Jul 2004. Retrieved 2008-06-05. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

Further reading

General readers

  • Feynman, R.P. & Weinberg, S. (1987) Elementary Particles and the Laws of Physics: The 1986 Dirac Memorial Lectures. Cambridge Univ. Press.
  • Ford, Kenneth W. (2005) The Quantum World. Harvard Univ. Press.
  • Brian Greene (1999). The Elegant Universe. W.W.Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-05858-1.
  • John Gribbin (2000) Q is for Quantum – An Encyclopedia of Particle Physics. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-85578-X.
  • Oerter, Robert (2006) The Theory of Almost Everything: The Standard Model, the Unsung Triumph of Modern Physics. Plume.
  • Schumm, Bruce A. (2004) Deep Down Things: The Breathtaking Beauty of Particle Physics. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-7971-X.
  • Martinus Veltman (2003). Facts and Mysteries in Elementary Particle Physics. World Scientific. ISBN 981-238-149-X.
  • Frank Close (2004). Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280434-0.
  • Seiden, Abraham (2005). Particle Physics – A Comprehensive Introduction. Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-8053-8736-6.

Textbooks

  • Bettini, Alessandro (2008) Introduction to Elementary Particle Physics. Cambridge Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-521-88021-3
  • Coughlan, G. D., J. E. Dodd, and B. M. Gripaios (2006) The Ideas of Particle Physics: An Introduction for Scientists, 3rd ed. Cambridge Univ. Press. An undergraduate text for those not majoring in physics.
  • Griffiths, David J. (1987) Introduction to Elementary Particles. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-60386-4.
  • Kane, Gordon L. (1987). Modern Elementary Particle Physics. Perseus Books. ISBN 0-201-11749-5.
  • Perkins, Donald H. (2000) Introduction to High Energy Physics, 4th ed. Cambridge Univ. Press.

The most important address about the current experimental and theoretical knowledge about elementary particle physics is the Particle Data Group, where different international institutions collect all experimental data and give short reviews over the contemporary theoretical understanding.

other pages are:

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