Particle Physics

The following table is my interpretation of the main families of known sub-atomic particles.

Sub-atomic particles
Even spin
Bosons
Odd spin
Fermions
LightForce carriers
e.g. photon
Leptons
e.g. electron
(experience the
weak nuclear force)
Heavy
(generally)
Hadrons
(experience the
strong nuclear force)
Mesons
Made of two quarks
Baryons
Made of three quarks
e.g. proton, neutron
Quarks



The following table gives more detail on members of these families.

Fermions
(Sub-atomic particles which are constituents of matter
with an odd number of half-spin units, i.e. 1/2, 3/2 5/2, ...)
Leptons (spin=1/2) Quarks (spin = 1/2)
ClassName Mass (GeV/c2)Electric charge Name (Flavor) Approx. Mass (GeV/c2) Electric charge
I electron 0.000511 -1 up 0.005 +2/3
electron-neutrino < 7x10-9 0 down 0.01 -1/3
II muon 0.106 -1 strange 0.2 -1/3
muon-neutrino < 0.0003 0 charmed 1.5 +2/3
III tau 1.7771 -1 top 170 +2/3
tauon-neutrino < 0.03 0 bottom 4.7 -1/3
Bosons
(Sub-atomic particles which are force carriers
with an even number of half-spin units, i.e. 0, 1, 2, ...)
Unified electroweak force (spin=1) Strong/Color force (spin = 1)
Name Mass (GeV/c2) Electric charge Name Mass (GeV/c2) Electric charge
Photon 0 0 Gluon 0 0
W - 80.22 -1
W + 80.22 +1 Gravity force (spin = 2)
Z 0 1.187 0 Graviton 0 0
Hadrons
(Sub-atomic particles which are heavy, strongly interacting, and made of quarks)
Baryons (qqq) and Antibaryons (q-q-q-)
are made up of three quarks, so have odd spin
Name Mass (GeV/c2) Electric chargeQuark content Spin Lifetime (secs)
Proton 0.93828 +1uud 1/2 > 1039
Neutron 0.93957 0 udd 1/2 898
lambda 1.1156 0 uds 1/2 2.6 x 10 -10
omega 1.6725 -1sss 3/2 0.8 x 10 -10
Mesons (qq-)
are made up of a quark and antiquark, so have even spin and are therefore bosons
Name Mass (GeV/c2) Electric chargeQuark content Spin Lifetime (secs)
Pion 0.13957 +1ud- 0 2.6x10 -8
Kaon 0.49367 -1su- 0 1.2x10 -16
Rho 0.770 +1ud- 1
D+1.869 +1cd- 0
Eta-c 2.979 0 cc- 0

Subatomic particles


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