particle

There are two groups of elementary particles, quarks and leptons. The quarks are up and down, charm and strange, top and bottom (beauty). The leptons are the electron and electron neutrino, muon and muon neutrino, tau and tau neutrino. The quarks and leptons, which are all particles of matter, are referred to collectively as fermions. There are four fundamental forces, or interactions, between particles, which are carried by special particles called bosons. Electromagnetism is carried by the photon, the weak force by the charged W and neutral Z bosons, the strong force by the gluon; gravity is probably carried by the graviton, which has not yet been discovered. Hadrons are particles that feel the strong force. They include mesons, which are composite particles made up of a quark–antiquark pair and baryons, which are particles containing three quarks. Pions and kaons are types of meson. Neutrons and protons (the constituents of ordinary matter) are baryons; neutrons contain one up and two down quarks; protons two up and one down quark.
9 results

Long-lived exotic particle discovered

Discovery of a new exotic hadron containing two charm quarks and an up and a down antiquark

News
Physics
29 July, 2021
Physics
News
29 July, 2021

Particle detectors meet canvas

This year is the European year of cultural heritage, but what does particle physics have to do with art? More than you might think

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Knowledge sharing
26 March, 2018
Knowledge sharing
News
26 March, 2018

Fifty years since Charpak revolutionised particle detectors

In 1968, Georges Charpak invented the Nobel prize-winning multiwire proportional chamber pushing particle physics detection into the electronic era

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Experiments
23 February, 2018
Experiments
News
23 February, 2018

First high-precision LHC measurement of W boson mass

In a paper published today in the European Physical Journal C, the ATLAS Collaboration reports the first high-precision measurement of W boson mass

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Experiments
12 February, 2018
Experiments
News
12 February, 2018

Long-lived physics

The CMS collaboration closes in on exotic long-lived particles that could get trapped in its detector layers

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Experiments
18 January, 2018
Experiments
News
18 January, 2018

Hunting season at the LHC

With the LHC now back smashing protons together at an energy of 13 TeV, what exotic beasts do physicists hope to find?

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Physics
10 August, 2017
Physics
News
10 August, 2017

LHCb announces a charming new particle

The LHCb experiment has reported the observation of a baryon containing two charm quarks and one up quark

News
Experiments
06 July, 2017
Experiments
News
06 July, 2017

2017: What can we expect?

CERN’s Director General, Fabiola Gianotti, discusses the opportunities for physics research in the coming year

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Physics
27 January, 2017
Physics
News
27 January, 2017

ENLIGHT meeting on particle therapy in the Netherlands

The annual meeting of ENLIGHT, which focuses on particle therapy for cancer treatment, was held in the Netherlands

News
Physics
29 September, 2016