CHAPTER 1: FERMIONS

Fermions are the elements that makes up matter. They have half-integer spin and also do obey The Pauli exclusion principle and The Fermi-Dirac Statistics (go to the previous post for a better introduction to fermions)

Nevertheless, the particles under the fermions family, ain't all friends; they are separated into two different types, viz:

1.1) Leptons, and
1.2) Quarks

ATTENTION
Please do know and don't forget that 'leptons' and 'quarks' are not names of fundamental particles but they are the two kinds of fermions. There are 6 fundamental particles under leptons and also 6 fundamental particles under quarks; making it a total of 12 Fermions.
Did you understand? If you don't, please read all over again. Hahahaha 

1.1 LEPTONS
Leptons is the name assigned to the matter forming particles that carries electric charge of 0 or -1. They are never affected by strong Nuclear forces (See my article on ALL THE FORCES IN PHYSICS).

Leptons are of two types, and they are:
a) Charged Leptons with the electrical charge of -1, and they includes (in the other of their increasing mass); 
i) Electron,
ii) Muon, and
iii) Tau

"Please note that Muon and Tau are never stable in existence, hence, they decay to form electrons and other particles which are more stable."

The Atom is Completed by the stable, negatively charged Electron.

b) Neutral Leptons (Neutrinos): which have zero charge and do not interact with anything. They are also very scarce and conspicuous. Moreover, each neutrino is associated to a particular charged lepton and is always seen when that lepton decays as follows;

i) Lightest Neutrino (Electron)
ii) Middle Neutrino (Muon)
iii) Heaviest Neutrinos (Tau)

"It is very much allowed to address a neutrino by the name of the charged lepton it is associated to.E.g. The Lightest neutrino can be called the electron neutrino also."

A non-charged lepton cannot be seen in the decay of another charged lepton that it's not associated with - They have some unsettled family issues , just kidding. 

Some examples of composite particles (FUNDAMENTAL PARTICLES combine to form COMPOSITE particles, okay?) formed by leptons includes;

a) The atom is completed by the electron(the most popular lepton)
b) The Positronium is formed by an electron and an antielectron.



1.2 QUARKS
Quarks are leptons with the charges of 2/3 or -1/3. There are six flavors (types) of quarks,
a,b) UP and DOWN quarks,
c,b) CHARM and STRANGE quarks, and
e,f) TOP and BOTTOM quarks

The Up, Charm and Top quarks have a charge of 2/3 while the other three has the charge of -1/3.

Quarks are never found in their separate forms like you may find that lepton named electron (others must be jealous of him, hahaha) and the 'reserved' neutrinos.

Quarks combine with great force carrying particles (we'll talk about this later on chapter 2: BOSONS) to form composite particles called HADRONS.

a) A hadron formed by three quarks is called a BARYON, examples are the;
i) Protons (formed from two UP quarks and one DOWN quark; uud)
ii) Neutrons (formed from two DOWN quarks and one UP quarks; udd)

The Quark Structure of the Neutron and Proton.

b) Finally, a hadron formed from just one quark and an antiquark is called a MESON
examples is the PION (can be formed by an up quark with an anti-down quark  )

So that is it on FERMIONS for now.

Hope that was short enough?

Any questions OR comments, please don't forget to drop them.

That's the topic your high school physics textbook didn't contain completely.
Enjoy!

FUNDAMENTAL PARTICLES

CONTINUED FROM: INTRODUCTION TO FUNDAMENTAL PARTICLES

Nice and simple introduction right? Now lets go down to business. What do we mean by Fundamental particles?

Fundamental Particles can be defined as the smallest, indivisible particles that forms matter and determines their properties and interaction with other matters

(Sounding more like the earlier definition of atoms right? haha)

Anyway, fundamental particles are divided into two groups, namely;
1) The Fermions, and
2) The Boson.

Let's discuss briefly on these two groups before we 'delve' into them fully.

FERMIONS (Matter Forming Particles)
Fermions are like the 'building blocks' of matter. They come together by the help of force carrying particles to make matter.

Fermions are the building blocks of matter.

The Spin of Fermions are always half-integer spins like 1/2, 3/2, 5/2, etc; this makes them able to obey;

a) the Fermi-Dirac Statistics: which in Physics, is the branch of quantum statistics used to calculate the permitted energy arrangements of the particles in a system in terms of the exclusion principle (thefreedictionary.com, 2013), and
b) the Pauli's Exclusion Principle: the quantum mechanical principle which states that no two identical fermions may occupy the same quantum state at the same time (Wikipedia.org, 2013)

BOSONS (Force Carrying Particles)
While fermions as the building blocks, bosons are the 'cementing agents' that holds them together as I mentioned earlier.

Bosons holds matter together.

Bosons were first theorized even before they were observed and even one of them, the graviton, is yet to be observed.
Fermions interacted with each other by exchanging force carrying particles with one another. These force carrying particles are of different natures and strengths and are peculiar to a given type of force.
Bosons have integer spins like 0, 1, 2, 3, etc; and hence they obey;
a) Bose-Einstein Statistics: a version of fermi-dirac statistics that applies to boson.

Note: that the use of the phrase 'cementing agents' to describe bosons does not mean that all of them are as strong as cements. It was used to create a close-enough mental picture.

On my next article, we would go deep into... YOU CHOOSE:
FERMIONS or BOSONS.

Don't Forget to drop your comments and questions.
And if you like it, SHARING is free.
Physics is FUN.

INTRODUCTION TO FUNDAMENTAL PARTICLES

Physics is a broad branch of pure science which 'bothers' itself with the existence of matter and how they interact with each other and space. And now that antimatters have been discovered, that definition would probably be needing a review, hahaha.

But the point I really want to make from this definition is that physics isn't really complete until we answer the question:
WHAT IS MATTER REALLY MADE OF?
Or better put; WHAT ARE THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF MATTER?

It's funny enough to know that some people used to believe that matter was composed of four elements: Water, Fire, Air, and Earth; like you see in the Nickelodeon cartoon series, The Avatar. Some other beliefs added Wood and Metal to the list.

Avatar: The Legend of Korra Characters with the presumed four elements.

Not until science stumbled into the 'indestructible' and 'indivisible' ATOMS. Anyway, we all know that the atom didn't hold those titles for so long; at least, not after we found out that it is made up of some other particles - the SUBATOMIC PARTICLES. These particles includes,
a) The Positively charged Proton;
b) The Negatively charged Electron;
c) and the neutral Neutron.

But, Are we there yet? NO!

All the above mentioned subatomic particles are not fundamental (apart from the electrons - at least for now). It was discovered that the proton and neutron had building elements. These elements has been organized into groups and called FUNDAMENTAL PARTICLES.

And for the rest of this week, I'll spend time to explain these particles one after the other.
Are you ready?

Click to CONTINUE.