Sub-Atomic (Elementary) Particles for a Beginner

Greetings!

We’ll be talking about the most tiny bit of anything, here. Yeah, so what’s everything made up of? Atoms?? And what about atoms? They’re made of protons, neutrons, electrons and aaahh! Now, what about the protons and neutrons? Further they are made up of sub-atomic particles; quarks, in this case.


(A/N: following the remarks that this blog’s English is ‘non-decipherable’ by many, Echo Delta shall be trying to dilute it… ‘if not for my reader, then for whom do I write.’)

FERMIONS AND BOSONS

Basically, what do we have around us? Matter and force. We are materials (~from matter) and so is our Earth. The Earth holds us on it by gravitation. The gravitation here is the force, obviously. Thus everything around can be seen as matter and force. Force is by means of which matters interact.

What are the tiniest bits of matter and force? Yes, it’s time for the heroic entry of our protagonists! (^drum-rolls please^) the FERMIONS AND BOSONS!!! Fermions are the particles of matter, and bosons that of force.

Fermions is the category of quarks and leptons, and bosons that of the exchange particles, e.g., gluons, photons, W & Z bosons and the theoretical gravitons.

𐎣QUARKS

There are six quarks, and their names are interesting. Up (u), down (d), charm (c), strange(s), top (t) and the bottom (b) quarks. Of these, the top quark is the heaviest of all subatomic particles ever discovered. Quarks are seen in doublets. As you might have already deduced, yes, the doublets are u-d, c-s and t-b. Of these, the first bros - u,c & t, have a charge of +⅔, and the others - d,s & b, -⅓. Have you ever wondered why the protons have a +1 charge and the neutrons are neutral?? The explanation comes from the charges of quarks. The protons are made up of two up quarks and one down quark. Now, try the calculation. 2 times +⅔ + one time -⅓ = +1. That's the charge of a proton. The neutrons are made of two down quarks and one up quark. Thus, the neutron gets the charge of zero.

𐎣 LEPTONS

Now as you have known about quarks, meet Mr. Lepton’s ;) We’ve the electrically charged ones Mr. Electron, Mr. Muon and Mr. Tau, and three electrically neutral neutrinos. The leptons would be stable, and probably won’t decay into anything else. This is because they won’t interact with themselves. Yet, some weak interactions are observed. On the basis of these weak interactions, the leptons are as well grouped into doublets: v(sub)e-e-, v(sub)m-μ- and v(sub)τ-τ-. Within these pairs, transitions occur, and it is by the emission of W+ and W- particles, which are called the gauge bosons, having spin 1.


Quarks also have electroweak interactions. That as well is within the doublets. But, along with the weak interactions, unlike the leptons, the quarks have strong interactions as well.

Now let’s shed some light upon the one special kind of particles. Strongly interacting particles made of quarks: HADRONS. You might have heard this… you recollect it? The large hadron collider! Protons, neutrons and all are hadrons.

𐎣HADRONS

These strongly interacting particles made of quarks are divided into two: the Baryons with half-integral spins and the mesons with integral spins. Protons and neutrons are baryons. Examples for mesons are pions. Pions are the lightest mesons, and lightest hadron as well. They are spin zero particles which are of three types: the positively charged π+ (+1 charge), the negatively charged π- (-1) and the one with no charge π0(0).


𐠎GETTING BORED??? Well, time for some dramatic stuff.
Ready for a ride to the past? Come, lets set off! Years, decades.. And decades… and decades…
Thirty years after the birth of Special Theory of Relativity. The 1930s.
A Japanese physicist comes forward with his theoretical discovery: Yukawa Hideki with the discovery of mesotrons! The exchange particles of nuclear force! Mesotrons!
Why did you name so?
From the Greek word mesos which means intermediate.
Heisenberg: And the tro comes from???
After-all, Heisenberg himself is the son of a professor of Greek.
Heisenberg: make meson, fella.
Accepted! Thus, the particles were termed mesons.



       Baryons will be having an odd number of quarks and mesons even. Usually, baryons have three quarks and mesons one quark and one antiquark.

Thinking about quarks… the quarks all have almost same size but a large difference in their masses. What really causes this mass???

It’s been observed that particles that interact more with the Higgs Field have more mass, that they are heavy. Thus, Higgs field can be seen as a mass-creating field. Now, you might be thinking of Higgs Bosons! Okay, here they are.

Higgs bosons are the tiniest bits of Higgs field. They are spin zero particles, and are highly unstable. Immediately, they decay into other particles.


Hope you know the theoretical discovery of this particle, or rather the particles responsible for the mass of sub-atomic particles, took on the Nobel Prize in Physics 2013.

This particle had widely been called God’s particled, though majority of the scientists doesnt agree with that.


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To talk about fermions and bosons in comparison,
The bosons have symmetric wave functions wheraas the fermions have antisymmetric.

Two identical fermions can never be at the same place at the same time. Do you get why the electrons of same spin never pair up?? Yeah, that’s it. But, bosons are not like that. They can be together in large numbres. Like, bosons are like puppies: ‘the more, the merrier.’ but, fermions, cats! Where one pet cat rules, it’s always better we don’t bring another.

-Echo Delta