Classification of Elementary Particles
with half-integral spin are called fermions and those
with integral spin are called bosons.
This is a particularly useful way to classify
elementary particles because all stable matter in the
universe appears to be composed, at some level, of
constituent fermions.
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Bosons and Fermions
Photons, gluons, W ±, and the Z are called gauge
bosons and are responsible for the strong and
electroweak interactions.
Gravitons are also bosons, having spin 2.
Fermions exert attractive or repulsive forces on each
other by exchanging gauge bosons, which are the
force carriers.
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Leptons
The leptons are perhaps the simplest of the
elementary particles.
They appear to be pointlike, that is, with no apparent
internal structure, and seem to be truly elementary.
Thus far there has been no plausible suggestion
they are formed from some more fundamental
particles.
There are only six leptons plus their six antiparticles.
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Leptons-The Electron and the Muon
Each of the charged particles has an associated
neutrino, named after its charged partner (for
example, muon neutrino).
The muon decays into an electron, and the tau can
decay into an electron, a muon, or even hadrons
(which is most probable).
The muon decay (by the weak interaction) is:
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Neutrinos
Neutrinos have zero charge.
Their masses are known to be very small. The precise
mass of neutrinos may have a bearing on current
cosmological theories of the universe because of the
gravitational attraction of mass.
All leptons have spin 1/2, and all three neutrinos have been
identified experimentally.
Neutrinos are particularly difficult to detect because they
have no charge and little mass, and they interact very
weakly.
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Hadrons
These are particles that act through the strong force.
Two classes of hadrons: mesons and baryons.
Mesons are particles with integral spin having
masses greater than that of the muon (106 MeV/c2;
note that the muon is a lepton and not a meson).
All baryons have masses at least as large as the
proton and have half-integral spins.
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Mesons
Mesons are bosons because of their integral spin.
The meson family is rather large and consists of many
variations, distinguished according to their composition of
quarks.
The pion (π-meson) is a meson that can either have charge
or be neutral.
In addition to the pion there is also a K meson, which exists
in both charged (K±) and neutral forms (K0). The K− meson
is the antiparticle of the K+, and their common decay mode
is into muons or pions.
All mesons are unstable and not abundant in nature.
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Baryons
The neutron and proton are the best-known
baryons.
The proton is the only stable baryon, but some
theories predict that it is also unstable with a
lifetime greater than 1030 years.
All baryons except the proton eventually decay
into protons.
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Particles and Lifetimes
The lifetimes of particles are also indications of their
force interactions.
Particles that decay through the strong interaction are
usually the shortest-lived, normally decaying in less than
10−20 s.
The decays caused by the electromagnetic interaction
generally have lifetimes on the order of 10−16 s, and
The weak interaction decays are even slower, longer
than 10−10 s.
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Fundamental and Composite Particles
We call certain particles fundamental; this means that
they are not composed of other, smaller particles. We
believe leptons, quarks, and gauge bosons are
fundamental particles.
Although the Z and W bosons have very short lifetimes,
they are regarded as particles, so a definition of particles
dependent only on lifetimes is too restrictive.
Other particles are composites, made from the
fundamental particles.
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Conservation Laws and Symmetries
Physicists like to have clear rules or laws that
determine whether a certain process can occur or not.
It seems that everything occurs in nature that is not
forbidden.
Certain conservation laws are already familiar from our
study of classical physics. These include mass-energy,
charge, linear momentum, and angular momentum.
These are absolute conservation laws: they are
always obeyed.
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Additional Conservation Laws
These are helpful in understanding the many
possibilities of elementary particle interactions.
Some of these laws are absolute, but others
may be valid for only one or two of the
fundamental interactions.
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Baryon Conservation
Why proton is stable?
For example, the process p e
does not violate the
conservation laws of charge, energy, linear momentum, or angular
momentum. However, it does not occur because it violates the
conservation of baryon number, i.e., B = 1 on the left and 0 on the right.
It is fortunate that this process "never" happens, since otherwise all
protons in the universe would gradually change into positrons! The
apparent stability of the proton, and the lack of many other processes
that might otherwise occur, are thus correctly described by introducing
the baryon number B together with a law of conservation of baryon
number.
Empirically this is part of a more general conservation law for
what is assigned a new quantum number called baryon number
that has the value B = +1 for baryons and −1 for antibaryons, and
0 for all other particles.
The conservation of baryon number requires the same total
baryon number before and after the reaction. 14
Lepton Conservation
The leptons are all fundamental particles, and there is a
conservation of leptons for each of the three kinds
(families) of leptons.
The number of leptons from each family is the same both
before and after a reaction.
We let Le = +1 for the electron and the electron neutrino;
Le = −1 for their antiparticles; and Le = 0 for all other
particles.
We assign the quantum numbers Lμ for the muon and its
neutrino and Lτ for the tau and its neutrino similarly.
Thus three additional conservation laws.
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Strangeness
Several particles found to have unusual
(strange) properties:
Always produced in pairs
p- + p+ K0 + L0 but not p- + p+ K0 + n
Decay is slow (indicative of weak interaction rather
than strong) Half-lives of order of 10-10 to 10-8 sec
One would expect the K0 meson to also decay into two
photons very quickly, but it does not.
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The New Quantum Number: Strangeness
Strangeness, S, is conserved in the strong and
electromagnetic interactions, but not in the
weak interaction.
The kaons have S = +1, lambda and sigmas
have S = −1, the xi has S = −2, and the omega
has S = −3.
When the strange particles are produced by
the p + p strong interaction, they must be
produced in pairs to conserve strangeness.
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Further…
π0 can decay into two photons by the strong interaction,
it is not possible for K0 to decay at all by the strong
interaction. The K0 is the lightest S = 0 particle, and there
is no other strange particle to which it can decay. It can
decay only by the weak interaction, which violates
strangeness conservation.
Because the typical decay times of the weak interaction
are on the order of 10−10 s, this explains the longer
decay time for K0.
Only ΔS = ±1 violations are allowed by the weak
interaction.
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Hypercharge
One more quantity, called hypercharge, has also become
widely used as a quantum number.
The hypercharge quantum number Y is defined by Y = S + B.
Hypercharge, the sum of the strangeness and baryon quantum
numbers, is conserved in strong interactions.
The hypercharge and strangeness conservation laws hold for
the strong and electromagnetic interactions, but are violated
for the weak interaction.
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Color
Because of the Pauli exclusion principle (all
quarks are spin ½ particles) can’t have three
of the same particles occupying the same
state.
Example: - is (sss) so need three different
yet strange quarks
So colored quarks were proposed
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Three color charges were added
Red, green blue: r, g, b
And…three anti-colors
antired, antigreen and antiblue: r, g, b
Mesons have a color anticolor pair
Spin is either zero or 1 so can have ↑↑ or ↑↓
Baryons must have three different colors
Spin is ½ so have ↑↑↓ or ↓↓↑
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The Fundamental Forces in Nature
Strong Force
Range-Short range ~ 10-15 m (1 fermi)
Responsible for binding of quarks into neutrons and protons
Force mediator- Gluon
Electromagnetic Force
Strength-10-2 as strong as strong force
Range- infinite (1/r2 force law)
Responsible for Binding of atoms and molecules
Force mediator- Photon
Weak force
Strength- ~ 10-6 times as strong as the strong force
Responsible for beta decay, very short range ~10-18 m
Force mediator- W+, W- and Z0 bosons
Gravitational Force
Strength-10-43 times as strong as the strong force
Range –Infinite (Also 1/r2 force law)
Force mediator- Graviton (not yet discovered)
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Yukawa theory of the strong interaction and
the prediction of exchange quanta of strong
interaction
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Where g is a constant
solution
Natural Unit
