List of particles



This is a list of particles in particle physics, including currently known and hypothetical elementary particles, as well as the composite particles that can be built up from them.

For a chronological listing of subatomic particles by discovery date, see Timeline of particle discoveries.


Elementary particles

bosons integer spin.

Standard Model

The Standard Model of particle physics is the current understanding of the physics of elementary particles. All Standard Model particles except the Higgs boson have been observed.

Fermions (half-integer spin)

Main article: Fermion

  Fermions have half-integer spin; for all known elementary fermions this is ½. Each fermion has its own distinct antiparticle. Fermions are the basic building blocks of all matter. They are classified according to whether they interact via the color force or not. In the Standard Model, there are 12 types of elementary fermions: six leptons.

Quarks
Main article: Quark

Quarks interact via the color force. Their respective antiparticles are known as antiquarks. Quarks exist in six flavors:

Leptons
Main article: Lepton

Leptons do not interact via the color force. Their respective antiparticles are known as antileptons. (The antiparticle of the positron for historical reasons.) There are six leptons, listed here with its corresponding antiparticle:

Bosons (integer spin)

Main article: Boson

Bosons have whole number spins. The fundamental forces of nature are mediated by graviton) the elementary bosons are:

Name Charge (e) Spin Mass (GeV) Force mediated Existence
Photon 0 1 0 Electromagnetism Confirmed
W± ±1 1 80.4 Weak nuclear Confirmed
Z0 0 1 91.2 Weak nuclear Confirmed
Gluon 0 1 0 Strong nuclear Confirmed
Graviton 0 2 0 Gravity Unconfirmed
Higgs 0 0 >112 See below Unconfirmed

The graviton is not a standard model particle. Assuming that the Higgs boson exists, it is expected to be discovered at the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator under construction at CERN.

Hypothetical particles

Supersymmetric theories predict the existence of more particles, none of which have been confirmed experimentally as of 2007:

  • The photino (spin-½) is the superpartner of the photon.
  • The gluon.
  • The graviton boson in supergravity theories.
  • The charginos.
  • Sterile neutrinos are introduced by many extensions to the Standard Model, and may be needed to explain the LSND results.
  • squarks (spin-0) are the supersymmetric partners of the Standard Model fermions. The stop squark (superpartner of the top quark) is thought to have a low mass and is often the subject of experimental searches.

Other theories predict the existence of additional bosons:

  • The Higgs (spin-0) has been proposed to explain the origin of mass by the spontaneous symmetry breaking of the SU(2) gauge symmetry.
  • The graviton (spin-2) has been proposed to mediate gravity in theories of quantum gravity.
  • The graviphoton (spin-1).
  • The axion (spin-0) is a pseudoscalar particle introduced in Peccei-Quinn theory to solve the strong-CP problem.
  • The axino and saxion form together with the axion a supermultiplet in supersymmetric extensions of Peccei-Quinn theory.
  • The X and Y bosons are predicted by GUT theories to be heavier equivalents of the W and Z.
  • The magnetic photon.
  • The neutrino masses by the seesaw mechanism.

Mirror particles are predicted by theories that restore Parity symmetry.

Magnetic monopole is a generic name for particles with non-zero magnetic charge. They are predicted by some GUT theories.

Tachyon is a generic name for hypothetical particles that travel faster than the speed of light and have an imaginary rest mass.

The preon was a suggested substructure for both quarks and leptons, but modern collider experiments have all but disproven their existence.

Composite particles

Hadrons

Hadrons are defined as strongly interacting composite particles. Hadrons are either:

gluons. A "sea" of virtual quark-antiquark pairs is also present in each hadron.

Notice that mesons are composite bosons, but not composed of bosons. All hadrons, including mesons, are composed of quarks (which are fermions).

Baryons (fermions)

 

For a detailed list, see List of baryons.

Ordinary fermions) contain three valence quarks or three valence antiquarks each.

  • Nucleons are the fermionic constituents of normal atomic nuclei:
    • Protons, composed of two up and one down quark (uud)
    • Neutrons, composed of two down and one up quark (ddu)
  • strange quarks, are short-lived and heavier than nucleons. Although not normally present in atomic nuclei, they can appear in short-lived hypernuclei.
  • A number of bottom baryons have also been observed.

Some hints at the existence of exotic baryons have been found recently; however, negative results have also been reported. Their existence is uncertain.

  • Pentaquarks consist of four valence quarks and one valence antiquark.

Mesons (bosons)

 

For a detailed list, see List of mesons.

Ordinary J/ψ, and many other types of mesons. In quantum hadrodynamic models, the strong force between nucleons is mediated by mesons.

Exotic mesons may also exist. Positive signatures have been reported for all of these particles at some time, but their existence is still somewhat uncertain.

  • Tetraquarks consist of two valence quarks and two valence antiquarks.
  • Glueballs are bound states of gluons with no valence quarks.
  • Hybrids consist of one or more valence quark-antiquark pairs and one or more real gluons.

Atomic nuclei

  isotope table for a complete list of isotopes.

Atoms

periodic table for an overview. Atoms consist of protons and neutrons within the nucleus. Within these particles, there are smaller particles still which are then made up of even smaller particles still.

Molecules

list of compounds for a list of molecules.

Condensed matter

The field equations of condensed matter physics are remarkably similar to those of high energy particle physics. As a result, much of the theory of particle physics applies to condensed matter physics as well; in particular, there are a selection of field excitations, called quasi-particles, that can be created and explored. These include:

Other

  • A WIMP (weakly interacting massive particle) is any one of a number of particles that might explain dark matter (such as the axion).
  • The elastic scattering of hadrons and the location of Regge poles in Regge theory.
  • The skyrmion, a topological solution of the nucleon, such as the axial vector current coupling and the mass.
  • A pions are quasi-Goldstone bosons (quasi- because they are not exactly massless) of the broken chiral isospin symmetry of quantum chromodynamics.
  • A fermion produced by the spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry.
  • An instanton is a field configuration which is a local minimum of the Euclidean action. Instantons are used in nonperturbative calculations of tunneling rates.
  • A dyon is a hypothetical particle with both electric and magnetic charges
  • A geon is an electromagnetic or gravitational wave which is held together in a confined region by the gravitational attraction of its own field energy.
  • A proton) falling well beyond the GZK cutoff, the energy limit beyond which virtually no cosmic rays should be detected.
  • A spurion is the name given to a "particle" inserted mathematically into an isospin-violating decay in order to analyze it as though it conserved isospin.
  • An inflaton is the generic name for an unidentified scalar particle responsible for the cosmic inflation.
  • A chronon is a proposed quantum of time.

Classification by speed

  • A tardyon or bradyon travels slower than light and has a non-zero rest mass.
  • A luxon travels at the speed of light and has no rest mass.
  • A tachyon (mentioned above) is a hypothetical particle that travels faster than the speed of light and has an imaginary rest mass.

See also

References

  • S. Eidelman et al. (2004). ""Review of Particle Physics"". Physics Letters B 592: 1. (All information on this list, and more, can be found in the extensive, annually-updated review by the Particle Data Group)
  • Joseph F. Alward, Elementary Particles, Department of Physics, University of the Pacific
  • Elementary particles, The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.
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    This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "List_of_particles". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.