Preon - Background

Background

Before the Standard Model (SM) was developed in the 1970s (the key elements of the Standard Model known as quarks were proposed by Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig in 1964), physicists observed hundreds of different kinds of particles in particle accelerators. These were organized into relationships on their physical properties in a largely ad-hoc system of hierarchies, not entirely unlike the way taxonomy grouped animals based on their physical features. Not surprisingly, the huge number of particles was referred to as the "particle zoo".

The Standard Model, which is now the prevailing model of particle physics, dramatically simplified this picture by showing that most of the observed particles were mesons, which are combinations of two quarks, or baryons which are combinations of three quarks, plus a handful of other particles. The particles being seen in the ever-more-powerful accelerators were, according to the theory, typically nothing more than combinations of these quarks.

Within the Standard Model, there are several different types of particles. One of these, the quarks, has six different types, of which there are three varieties in each (dubbed "colors", red, green, and blue, giving rise to quantum chromodynamics). Additionally, there are six different types of what are known as leptons. Of these six leptons, there are three charged particles: the electron, muon, and tau. The neutrinos comprise the other three leptons, and for each neutrino there is a corresponding member from the other set of three leptons. In the Standard Model, there are also bosons, including the photons; W+, W−, and Z bosons; gluons; and a few open spaces left for the graviton and Higgs boson. Almost all of these particles come in "left-handed" and "right-handed" versions (see chirality). The quarks, leptons and W boson all have antiparticles with opposite electric charge.

The Standard Model also has a number of problems which have not been entirely solved. In particular, no successful theory of gravitation based on a particle theory has yet been proposed. Although the Model assumes the existence of a graviton, all attempts to produce a consistent theory based on them have failed. Additionally, mass remains a mystery in the Standard Model. Although the mass of each successive particle follows certain patterns, predictions of the rest mass of most particles cannot be made precisely, except for the masses of almost all baryons which have been recently described very well by the model of de Souza. The Higgs boson explains why particles show inertial mass (but does not explain rest mass), but to date the Higgs mechanism remains unproven.

The Standard Model also has problems predicting the large scale structure of the universe. For instance, the SM generally predicts equal amounts of matter and antimatter in the universe, something that is observably not the case. A number of attempts have been made to "fix" this through a variety of mechanisms, but to date none have won widespread support. Likewise, basic adaptations of the Model suggest the presence of proton decay, which has not yet been observed.

Preon theory is motivated by a desire to replicate the achievements of the periodic table, and the later Standard Model which tamed the "particle zoo", by finding more fundamental answers to the huge number of arbitrary constants present in the Standard Model. It is one of several models to have been put forward in an attempt to provide a more fundamental explanation of the results in experimental and theoretical particle physics. The preon model has attracted comparatively little interest to date among the particle physics community.