xii.2. Fundamental Forces
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About |
PS : The weak and strong forces are effective only over a very short range and dominate only at the level of subatomic particles. Weak nuclear forces are responsible for radioactivity. |
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Force Carrier Particles or Bosons |
Particles of matter transfer discrete amounts of energy by exchanging bosons with each other. Each fundamental force has its own corresponding boson. Bosons have spin like 0, 1, 2, 3 etc. Bosons can again be divided into Gauge Bosons and Higgs Bosons. |
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Gauge Bosons (Responsible for energy transfer) |
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Higgs Boson or God’s Particle (Responsible for mass) |
The proposed Higgs Boson particle is responsible for the mass of every particle. |
How many confirmed elementary particles are there in the standard model?
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Name |
Types |
Generations |
Antiparticle |
Colors |
Total |
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Quarks |
2 |
3 |
Pair |
3 |
36 |
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Leptons |
2 |
3 |
Pair |
None |
12 |
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Gluons |
1 |
1 |
Own |
8 |
8 |
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W |
1 |
1 |
Pair |
None |
2 |
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Z |
1 |
1 |
Own |
None |
1 |
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Photon |
1 |
1 |
Own |
None |
1 |
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Higgs |
1 |
1 |
Own |
None |
1 |
- Quarks come in 6 flavors and 3 colors, which gives us 18 unique quarks. The leptons come in 6 flavors, but none of which are colored.
- Fermions are matter particles. For every particle of matter there is a corresponding antiparticle of antimatter. So there are 18 anti-quarks and 6 anti-leptons.
- On to the bosons. Gluons come in 8 color combinations. There are two kinds of W boson, one kind of Z boson, and one kind of photon for a total of 4 electroweak bosons. There is only one kind of higgs boson.
- Since bosons aren’t matter particles, they have no antiparticle counterparts. There are no “antibosons”. I think we’re ready to wrap it up. 8 gluons, 4 electroweak, and 1 Higgs gives us 13 bosons in total. So, 48 Fermions + 13 total Bosons = 61 known elementary particles.