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66.24: Short Glossary of Particle Physics

  • Page ID
    91954
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    baryon, a particle made up of three quarks.

    boson, any particle that has integer spin.

    electron, a lepton of negative charge, found to surround the atomic nucleus in atoms of ordinary matter.

    fermion, any particle that has half-integer spin.

    hadron, any particle that "feels" the strong nuclear force.

    Higgs boson, the particle associated with the Higgs field, that gives mass to other particles.

    lepton, one of six light fundamental particles: \(e^{-}, v_{e}^{0}, \mu^{-}, v_{\mu}^{0}, \tau^{-}, v_{\tau}^{0}\).

    meson, a particle consisting of a quark-antiquark pair.

    neutron, an uncharged baryon, found in the nucleus of atoms of ordinary matter.

    proton, a baryon of positive charge, found in the nucleus of atoms of ordinary matter.

    quark, one of six heavy fundamental particles: \(u, d, c, s, t, b\).

    vector boson, a particle responsible for mediating a force.


    66.24: Short Glossary of Particle Physics is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.