Elementary Particle - Overview

Overview

Main article: Standard Model See also: Physics beyond the Standard Model

According to the Standard Model, all elementary particles are either bosons or fermions (depending on their spin). The spin-statistics theorem identifies the resulting quantum statistics that differentiates fermions from bosons. According to this methodology: Particles normally associated with matter are fermions. They have half-integer spin and are divided into twelve flavours. Particles associated with fundamental forces are bosons and they have integer spin.

Elementary fermions (matter particles):

• Quarks:
  • up, down, charm, strange, top, bottom
• Leptons:
  • electron, electron neutrino, muon, muon neutrino, tau, tau neutrino

Elementary bosons (force-carrying particles):

• Gauge bosons:
  • gluon, W and Z bosons, photon

Other bosons

• Higgs boson

Of these, a boson that could be of the larger family of Higgs boson was the last discovered and was claimed as the heaviest boson ever found. Additional elementary particles may exist, such as the graviton, which would mediate gravitation. Such particles lie beyond the Standard Model.