Basic Particle Physics To Learn In Your Free Time

Fermions

Fermions are named after 20th century American-Italian physicist, Enrico Fermi who was a pioneer in particle physics.

Fermions include to subgroups know as quarks and leptons. As I said in the previous chapter, there are three generations of quarks. The heavier cousins of the up quark are known as 'charm' quarks and 'top' quarks. The cousins of the down quark are known as 'strange' quarks and 'bottom' quarks. These heavier cousins have a greater mass but same charge and have the same of a certain property called 'spin'.

it is misleading to conjure up an image of fundamental particles as small spinning objects. Instead we have learned simply to accept the observed fact that the particle is deflected by its magnetic field. If you don't understand, lets just assume that the spin is angular momentum.

Leptons also has three generations. The most common being the electron and the electron neutrino. The electron's function is to stabilize the positively charged nucleus of an atom. Neutrinos are quite useless to the universe but to humans, study of neutrinos has explained why we live in a matter universe and not an antimatter one. They are a byproduct of nuclear fusion in stars so the universe is full of them.

The heavier cousins of electrons are what are called 'muon' and 'tau'. The cousins of the electron neutrinos are called 'muon neutrinos' and 'tau neutrinos'. Like the generations of quarks, the generations of electrons and neutrinos have greater mass and have the same charge and spin.