基本粒子

更仔细的观察

物质的最小单位,或基本粒子,被归类在三个不同的组:夸克、轻子和玻色子。六个类型或“口味”夸克的夸克,夸克,夸克的魅力,奇怪的夸克,夸克,夸克底部。所有的夸克质量、电荷和一种特殊的电荷称为颜色,和每一个与不同的反粒子,十二个夸克。轻子包括电子、μ介子,τ粒子,电子中微子、μ中微子和τ中微子。这些粒子也有独特的反粒子;中微子是电中性的,如果他们有质量,非常轻。这些基本粒子与其它基本粒子通过一个或多个部队:电磁力(电荷粒子之间),强大的力量(粒子之间的颜色,比如夸克),弱力(所有轻子和夸克之间)和重力(所有粒子之间)。这些部队是由另一组基本粒子,测量玻色子:当两个粒子交互作用时,他们交换了一个或多个测量玻色子。计玻色子包括W和Z波色子,这种玻色子能调解弱核力,胶子,介导强核力的光子,调和了电磁力。假设引力子,调解重力,没有被孤立。 A sixth boson, the Higgs boson, is believed to interact with the other elementary particles in such a way as to impart mass to them; it too has not been experimentally isolated. Though these particles are believed to be elementary, they can under certain circumstances change into other elementary particles. In beta decay, for example, an up quark turns into a down quark, emitting an electron and an electron antineutrino in the process. All known forms of matter and energy are made of combinations of and interactions between elementary particles; atoms, for example, are made of electrons orbiting a nucleus composed of quarks bound together into larger particles, the protons and neutrons. Whether these particles might themselves be composed of more fundamental building blocks is an open question, and the construction of a “theory of everything” that would explain the properties of all of the known particles and forces remains the ultimate goal for modern physics.