2. Components of the Standard Model
The Standard Model of particle physics can be understood, at an introductory
level, in terms of three basic components. The components are quarks, leptons
and interactions. The characteristics of the three components are:
Quarks :
- combine to make other particles
- there are six flavours of quark
Leptons :
- don't combine
- there are six types of these also
Interaction particles :
- carry information between quarks and leptons
- there are three types
Each of the quarks and the leptons have a corresponding antiparticle. The
antiparticle of a quark or lepton has the same mass as its particle
partner but has the opposite electric charge. But electric charge is not
the only factor that determines the existence of an antiparticle, uncharged
particles have antiparticles.
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