Aquark(/kwɔːrk,kwɑːrk/) is a type ofelementary particleand a fundamental constituent ofmatter.Quarks combine to formcomposite particlescalledhadrons,the most stable of which areprotonsandneutrons,the components ofatomic nuclei.[1]All commonly observable matter is composed of up quarks, down quarks andelectrons.Owing to a phenomenon known ascolor confinement,quarks are never found in isolation; they can be found only within hadrons, which includebaryons(such as protons and neutrons) andmesons,or inquark–gluon plasmas.[2][3][nb 1]For this reason, much of what is known about quarks has been drawn from observations of hadrons.

Quark
Three colored balls (symbolizing quarks) connected pairwise by springs (symbolizing gluons), all inside a gray circle (symbolizing a proton). The colors of the balls are red, green, and blue, to parallel each quark's color charge. The red and blue balls are labeled "u" (for "up" quark) and the green one is labeled "d" (for "down" quark).
Aprotonis composed of twoup quarks,onedown quark,and thegluonsthat mediate the forces "binding" them together. Thecolor assignmentof individual quarks is arbitrary, but all three colors must be present; red, blue and green are used as an analogy to the primary colors that together produce a white color.
Compositionelementary particle
Statisticsfermionic
Generation1st, 2nd, 3rd
Interactionsstrong,weak,electromagnetic,gravitation
Symbol
q
Antiparticleantiquark (
q
)
Theorized
DiscoveredSLAC(c. 1968)
Types6 (up,down,strange,charm,bottom,andtop)
Electric charge+2/3e,−1/3e
Color chargeyes
Spin1/2ħ
Baryon number1/3

Quarks have variousintrinsicproperties,includingelectric charge,mass,color charge,andspin.They are the only elementary particles in theStandard Modelofparticle physicsto experience all fourfundamental interactions,also known asfundamental forces(electromagnetism,gravitation,strong interaction,andweak interaction), as well as the only known particles whose electric charges are notintegermultiples of theelementary charge.

There are six types, known asflavors,of quarks:up,down,charm,strange,top,andbottom.[4]Up and down quarks have the lowestmassesof all quarks. The heavier quarks rapidly change into up and down quarks through a process ofparticle decay:the transformation from a higher mass state to a lower mass state. Because of this, up and down quarks are generally stable and the most common in theuniverse,whereas strange, charm, bottom, and top quarks can only be produced inhigh energycollisions (such as those involvingcosmic raysand inparticle accelerators). For every quark flavor there is a corresponding type ofantiparticle,known as anantiquark,that differs from the quark only in that some of its properties (such as the electric charge) haveequal magnitude but opposite sign.

Thequark modelwas independently proposed by physicistsMurray Gell-MannandGeorge Zweigin 1964.[5]Quarks were introduced as parts of an ordering scheme for hadrons, and there was little evidence for their physical existence untildeep inelastic scatteringexperiments at theStanford Linear Accelerator Centerin 1968.[6][7]Accelerator program experiments have provided evidence for all six flavors. The top quark, first observed atFermilabin 1995, was the last to be discovered.[5]

Classification

edit
Six of the particles in theStandard Modelare quarks (shown in purple). Each of the first three columns forms agenerationof matter.

TheStandard Modelis the theoretical framework describing all the knownelementary particles.This model contains sixflavorsof quarks (
q
), namedup(
u
),down(
d
),strange(
s
),charm(
c
),bottom(
b
), andtop(
t
).[4]Antiparticlesof quarks are calledantiquarks,and are denoted by a bar over the symbol for the corresponding quark, such as
u
for an up antiquark. As withantimatterin general, antiquarks have the same mass,mean lifetime,and spin as their respective quarks, but the electric charge and otherchargeshave the opposite sign.[8]

Quarks arespin-1/2particles, which means they arefermionsaccording to thespin–statistics theorem.They are subject to thePauli exclusion principle,which states that no two identical fermions can simultaneously occupy the samequantum state.This is in contrast tobosons(particles with integer spin), of which any number can be in the same state.[9]Unlikeleptons,quarks possesscolor charge,which causes them to engage in thestrong interaction.The resulting attraction between different quarks causes the formation of composite particles known ashadrons(see§ Strong interaction and color chargebelow).

The quarks that determine thequantum numbersof hadrons are calledvalence quarks;apart from these, any hadron may contain an indefinite number ofvirtual"sea"quarks, antiquarks, andgluons,which do not influence its quantum numbers.[10]There are two families of hadrons:baryons,with three valence quarks, andmesons,with a valence quark and an antiquark.[11]The most common baryons are the proton and the neutron, the building blocks of theatomic nucleus.[12]A great number of hadrons are known (seelist of baryonsandlist of mesons), most of them differentiated by their quark content and the properties these constituent quarks confer. The existence of"exotic" hadronswith more valence quarks, such astetraquarks(
q

q

q

q
) andpentaquarks(
q

q

q

q

q
), was conjectured from the beginnings of the quark model[13]but not discovered until the early 21st century.[14][15][16][17]

Elementary fermions are grouped into threegenerations,each comprising two leptons and two quarks. The first generation includes up and down quarks, the second strange and charm quarks, and the third bottom and top quarks. All searches for a fourth generation of quarks and other elementary fermions have failed,[18][19]and there is strong indirect evidence that no more than three generations exist.[nb 2][20][21][22]Particles in higher generations generally have greater mass and less stability, causing them todecayinto lower-generation particles by means ofweak interactions.Only first-generation (up and down) quarks occur commonly in nature. Heavier quarks can only be created in high-energy collisions (such as in those involvingcosmic rays), and decay quickly; however, they are thought to have been present during the first fractions of a second after theBig Bang,when the universe was in an extremely hot and dense phase (thequark epoch). Studies of heavier quarks are conducted in artificially created conditions, such as inparticle accelerators.[23]

Having electric charge, mass, color charge, and flavor, quarks are the only known elementary particles that engage in all fourfundamental interactionsof contemporary physics: electromagnetism, gravitation, strong interaction, and weak interaction.[12]Gravitation is too weak to be relevant to individual particle interactions except at extremes of energy (Planck energy) and distance scales (Planck distance). However, since no successfulquantum theory of gravityexists, gravitation is not described by the Standard Model.

See thetable of propertiesbelow for a more complete overview of the six quark flavors' properties.

History

edit
Murray Gell-Mann (2007)
George Zweig (2015)

Thequark modelwas independently proposed by physicistsMurray Gell-Mann[24]andGeorge Zweig[25][26]in 1964.[5]The proposal came shortly after Gell-Mann's 1961 formulation of a particle classification system known as theEightfold Way– or, in more technical terms,SU(3)flavor symmetry,streamlining its structure.[27]PhysicistYuval Ne'emanhad independently developed a scheme similar to the Eightfold Way in the same year.[28][29]An early attempt at constituent organization was available in theSakata model.

At the time of the quark theory's inception, the "particle zoo"included a multitude ofhadrons,among other particles. Gell-Mann and Zweig posited that they were not elementary particles, but were instead composed of combinations of quarks and antiquarks. Their model involved three flavors of quarks,up,down,andstrange,to which they ascribed properties such as spin and electric charge.[24][25][26]The initial reaction of the physics community to the proposal was mixed. There was particular contention about whether the quark was a physical entity or a mere abstraction used to explain concepts that were not fully understood at the time.[30]

In less than a year, extensions to the Gell-Mann–Zweig model were proposed.Sheldon GlashowandJames Bjorkenpredicted the existence of a fourth flavor of quark, which they calledcharm.The addition was proposed because it allowed for a better description of theweak interaction(the mechanism that allows quarks to decay), equalized the number of known quarks with the number of knownleptons,and implied a mass formula that correctly reproduced the masses of the knownmesons.[31]

Deep inelastic scatteringexperiments conducted in 1968 at theStanford Linear Accelerator Center(SLAC) and published on October 20, 1969, showed that the proton contained much smaller,point-like objectsand was therefore not an elementary particle.[6][7][32]Physicists were reluctant to firmly identify these objects with quarks at the time, instead calling them "partons"– a term coined byRichard Feynman.[33][34][35]The objects that were observed at SLAC would later be identified as up and down quarks as the other flavors were discovered.[36]Nevertheless, "parton" remains in use as a collective term for the constituents of hadrons (quarks, antiquarks, andgluons).Richard Taylor,Henry KendallandJerome Friedmanreceived the 1990 Nobel Prize in physics for their work at SLAC.

Photograph of the event that led to the discovery of the
Σ++
c
baryon
,at theBrookhaven National Laboratoryin 1974

The strange quark's existence was indirectly validated by SLAC's scattering experiments: not only was it a necessary component of Gell-Mann and Zweig's three-quark model, but it provided an explanation for thekaon(
K
) andpion(
π
) hadrons discovered in cosmic rays in 1947.[37]

In a 1970 paper, Glashow,John IliopoulosandLuciano Maianipresented theGIM mechanism(named from their initials) to explain the experimental non-observation offlavor-changing neutral currents.This theoretical model required the existence of the as-yet undiscoveredcharm quark.[38][39]The number of supposed quark flavors grew to the current six in 1973, whenMakoto KobayashiandToshihide Maskawanoted that the experimental observation ofCP violation[nb 3][40]could be explained if there were another pair of quarks.

Charm quarks were produced almost simultaneously by two teams in November 1974 (seeNovember Revolution) – one at SLAC underBurton Richter,and one atBrookhaven National LaboratoryunderSamuel Ting.The charm quarks were observedboundwith charm antiquarks in mesons. The two parties had assigned the discovered meson two different symbols,Jandψ;thus, it became formally known as the
J/ψ
meson
.The discovery finally convinced the physics community of the quark model's validity.[35]

In the following years a number of suggestions appeared for extending the quark model to six quarks. Of these, the 1975 paper byHaim Harari[41]was the first to coin the termstopandbottomfor the additional quarks.[42]

In 1977, the bottom quark was observed by a team atFermilabled byLeon Lederman.[43][44]This was a strong indicator of the top quark's existence: without the top quark, the bottom quark would have been without a partner. It was not until 1995 that the top quark was finally observed, also by theCDF[45]and[46]teams at Fermilab.[5]It had a mass much larger than expected,[47]almost as large as that of agoldatom.[48]

Etymology

edit

For some time, Gell-Mann was undecided on an actual spelling for the term he intended to coin, until he found the wordquarkinJames Joyce's 1939 bookFinnegans Wake:[49]

– Three quarks for Muster Mark!
Sure he hasn't got much of a bark
And sure any he has it's all beside the mark.

The wordquarkis an outdated English word meaningto croak[50]and the above-quoted lines are about a bird choir mocking kingMark of Cornwallin the legend ofTristan and Iseult.[51]Especially in the German-speaking parts of the world there is a widespread legend, however, that Joyce had taken it from the wordQuark,[52]aGermanword ofSlavicorigin which denotesa curd cheese,[53]but is also a colloquial term for "trivial nonsense".[54]In the legend it is said that he had heard it on a journey to Germany at afarmers' marketinFreiburg.[55][56] Some authors, however, defend a possible German origin of Joyce's wordquark.[57]Gell-Mann went into further detail regarding the name of the quark in his 1994 bookThe Quark and the Jaguar:[58]

In 1963, when I assigned the name "quark" to the fundamental constituents of the nucleon, I had the sound first, without the spelling, which could have been "kwork". Then, in one of my occasional perusals ofFinnegans Wake,by James Joyce, I came across the word "quark" in the phrase "Three quarks for Muster Mark". Since "quark" (meaning, for one thing, the cry of the gull) was clearly intended to rhyme with "Mark", as well as "bark" and other such words, I had to find an excuse to pronounce it as "kwork". But the book represents the dream of a publican named Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker. Words in the text are typically drawn from several sources at once, like the "portmanteau"words inThrough the Looking-Glass.From time to time, phrases occur in the book that are partially determined by calls for drinks at the bar. I argued, therefore, that perhaps one of the multiple sources of the cry "Three quarks for Muster Mark" might be "Three quarts for Mister Mark", in which case the pronunciation "kwork" would not be totally unjustified. In any case, the number three fitted perfectly the way quarks occur in nature.

Zweig preferred the nameacefor the particle he had theorized, but Gell-Mann's terminology came to prominence once the quark model had been commonly accepted.[59]

The quark flavors were given their names for several reasons. The up and down quarks are named after the up and down components ofisospin,which they carry.[60]Strange quarks were given their name because they were discovered to be components of thestrange particlesdiscovered in cosmic rays years before the quark model was proposed; these particles were deemed "strange" because they had unusually long lifetimes.[61]Glashow, who co-proposed the charm quark with Bjorken, is quoted as saying, "We called our construct the 'charmed quark', for we were fascinated and pleased by the symmetry it brought to the subnuclear world."[62]The names "bottom" and "top", coined by Harari, were chosen because they are "logical partners for up and down quarks".[41][42][61]Alternative names for bottom and top quarks are "beauty" and "truth" respectively,[nb 4]but these names have somewhat fallen out of use.[66]While "truth" never did catch on, accelerator complexes devoted to massive production of bottom quarks are sometimes called "beauty factories".[67]

Properties

edit

Electric charge

edit

Quarks havefractionalelectric charge values – either (−1/3) or (+2/3) times theelementary charge(e), depending on flavor. Up, charm, and top quarks (collectively referred to asup-type quarks) have a charge of +2/3e; down, strange, and bottom quarks (down-type quarks) have a charge of −1/3e. Antiquarks have the opposite charge to their corresponding quarks; up-type antiquarks have charges of −2/3e and down-type antiquarks have charges of +1/3e. Since the electric charge of ahadronis the sum of the charges of the constituent quarks, all hadrons have integer charges: the combination of three quarks (baryons), three antiquarks (antibaryons), or a quark and an antiquark (mesons) always results in integer charges.[68]For example, the hadron constituents of atomic nuclei, neutrons and protons, have charges of 0 e and +1 e respectively; the neutron is composed of two down quarks and one up quark, and the proton of two up quarks and one down quark.[12]

Spin

edit

Spin is an intrinsic property of elementary particles, and its direction is an importantdegree of freedom.It is sometimes visualized as the rotation of an object around its own axis (hence the name "spin"), though this notion is somewhat misguided at subatomic scales because elementary particles are believed to bepoint-like.[69]

Spin can be represented by avectorwhose length is measured in units of thereduced Planck constantħ(pronounced "h bar" ). For quarks, a measurement of the spin vectorcomponentalong any axis can only yield the values +ħ/2or −ħ/2;for this reason quarks are classified asspin-1/2particles.[70]The component of spin along a given axis – by convention thezaxis – is often denoted by an up arrow ↑ for the value +1/2and down arrow ↓ for the value −1/2,placed after the symbol for flavor. For example, an up quark with a spin of +1/2along thezaxis is denoted by u↑.[71]

Weak interaction

edit
Feynman diagramofbeta decaywith time flowing upwards. The CKM matrix (discussed below) encodes the probability of this and other quark decays.

A quark of one flavor can transform into a quark of another flavor only through the weak interaction, one of the fourfundamental interactionsin particle physics. By absorbing or emitting aW boson,any up-type quark (up, charm, and top quarks) can change into any down-type quark (down, strange, and bottom quarks) and vice versa. This flavor transformation mechanism causes theradioactiveprocess ofbeta decay,in which a neutron (
n
) "splits" into a proton (
p
), anelectron(
e
) and anelectron antineutrino(
ν
e
) (see picture). This occurs when one of the down quarks in the neutron (
u

d

d
) decays into an up quark by emitting avirtual
W
boson, transforming the neutron into a proton (
u

u

d
). The
W
boson then decays into an electron and an electron antineutrino.[72]


n

p
+
e
+
ν
e
(Beta decay, hadron notation)

u

d

d

u

u

d
+
e
+
ν
e
(Beta decay, quark notation)

Both beta decay and the inverse process ofinverse beta decayare routinely used in medical applications such aspositron emission tomography(PET) and in experiments involvingneutrino detection.

Thestrengthsof the weak interactions between the six quarks. The "intensities" of the lines are determined by the elements of theCKM matrix.

While the process of flavor transformation is the same for all quarks, each quark has a preference to transform into the quark of its own generation. The relative tendencies of all flavor transformations are described by amathematical table,called theCabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa matrix(CKM matrix). Enforcingunitarity,the approximatemagnitudesof the entries of the CKM matrix are:[73]

whereVijrepresents the tendency of a quark of flavorito change into a quark of flavorj(or vice versa).[nb 5]

There exists an equivalent weak interaction matrix for leptons (right side of the W boson on the above beta decay diagram), called thePontecorvo–Maki–Nakagawa–Sakata matrix(PMNS matrix).[74]Together, the CKM and PMNS matrices describe all flavor transformations, but the links between the two are not yet clear.[75]

Strong interaction and color charge

edit
All types of hadrons have zero total color charge.
The pattern of strong charges for the three colors of quark, three antiquarks, and eight gluons (with two of zero charge overlapping).

According toquantum chromodynamics(QCD), quarks possess a property calledcolor charge.There are three types of color charge, arbitrarily labeledblue,green,andred.[nb 6]Each of them is complemented by an anticolor –antiblue,antigreen,andantired.Every quark carries a color, while every antiquark carries an anticolor.[76]

The system of attraction and repulsion between quarks charged with different combinations of the three colors is calledstrong interaction,which is mediated byforce carrying particlesknown asgluons;this is discussed at length below. The theory that describes strong interactions is calledquantum chromodynamics(QCD). A quark, which will have a single color value, can form abound systemwith an antiquark carrying the corresponding anticolor. The result of two attracting quarks will be color neutrality: a quark with color chargeξplus an antiquark with color charge −ξwill result in a color charge of 0 (or "white" color) and the formation of ameson.This is analogous to theadditive colormodel in basicoptics.Similarly, the combination of three quarks, each with different color charges, or three antiquarks, each with different anticolor charges, will result in the same "white" color charge and the formation of abaryonorantibaryon.[77]

In modern particle physics,gauge symmetries– a kind ofsymmetry group– relate interactions between particles (seegauge theories). ColorSU(3)(commonly abbreviated to SU(3)c) is the gauge symmetry that relates the color charge in quarks and is the defining symmetry for quantum chromodynamics.[78]Just as the laws of physics are independent of which directions in space are designatedx,y,andz,and remain unchanged if the coordinate axes are rotated to a new orientation, the physics of quantum chromodynamics is independent of which directions in three-dimensional color space are identified as blue, red, and green. SU(3)ccolor transformations correspond to "rotations" in color space (which, mathematically speaking, is acomplex space). Every quark flavorf,each with subtypesfB,fG,fRcorresponding to the quark colors,[79]forms a triplet: a three-componentquantum fieldthat transforms under the fundamentalrepresentationof SU(3)c.[80]The requirement that SU(3)cshould belocal– that is, that its transformations be allowed to vary with space and time – determines the properties of the strong interaction. In particular, it implies the existence ofeight gluon typesto act as its force carriers.[78][81]

Mass

edit
Current quark masses for all six flavors in comparison, asballsof proportional volumes.Proton(gray) andelectron(red) are shown in bottom left corner for scale.

Two terms are used in referring to a quark's mass:current quarkmassrefers to the mass of a quark by itself, whileconstituent quarkmassrefers to the current quark mass plus the mass of thegluonparticle fieldsurrounding the quark.[82]These masses typically have very different values. Most of a hadron's mass comes from the gluons that bind the constituent quarks together, rather than from the quarks themselves. While gluons are inherently massless, they possess energy – more specifically,quantum chromodynamics binding energy(QCBE) – and it is this that contributes so greatly to the overall mass of the hadron (seemass in special relativity). For example, a proton has a mass of approximately938MeV/c2,of which the rest mass of its three valence quarks only contributes about9 MeV/c2;much of the remainder can be attributed to the field energy of the gluons[83][84](seechiral symmetry breaking). The Standard Model posits that elementary particles derive their masses from theHiggs mechanism,which is associated to theHiggs boson.It is hoped that further research into the reasons for the top quark's large mass of ~173 GeV/c2,almost the mass of a gold atom,[83][85]might reveal more about the origin of the mass of quarks and other elementary particles.[86]

Size

edit

In QCD, quarks are considered to be point-like entities, with zero size. As of 2014, experimental evidence indicates they are no bigger than 10−4times the size of a proton, i.e. less than 10−19metres.[87]

Table of properties

edit

The following table summarizes the key properties of the six quarks.Flavor quantum numbers(isospin(I3),charm(C),strangeness(S,not to be confused with spin),topness(T), andbottomness(B′)) are assigned to certain quark flavors, and denote qualities of quark-based systems and hadrons. Thebaryon number(B) is +1/3for all quarks, as baryons are made of three quarks. For antiquarks, the electric charge (Q) and all flavor quantum numbers (B,I3,C,S,T,andB′) are of opposite sign. Mass andtotal angular momentum(J;equal to spin for point particles) do not change sign for the antiquarks.

Quark flavor properties[83]
Particle Mass*(MeV/c2) J B Q(e) I3 C S T B′ Antiparticle
Name Symbol Name Symbol
First generation
up
u
2.3±0.7± 0.5 1/2 +1/3 +2/3 +1/2 0 0 0 0 antiup
u
down
d
4.8±0.5± 0.3 1/2 +1/3 1/3 1/2 0 0 0 0 antidown
d
Second generation
charm
c
1275±25 1/2 +1/3 +2/3 0 +1 0 0 0 anticharm
c
strange
s
95±5 1/2 +1/3 1/3 0 0 −1 0 0 antistrange
s
Third generation
top
t
173210±510± 710 * 1/2 +1/3 +2/3 0 0 0 +1 0 antitop
t
bottom
b
4180±30 1/2 +1/3 1/3 0 0 0 0 −1 antibottom
b

J=total angular momentum,B=baryon number,Q=electric charge,
I3=isospin,C=charm,S=strangeness,T=topness,B′ =bottomness.

* Notation such as173210±510± 710, in the case of the top quark, denotes two types ofmeasurement
uncertainty
:The first uncertainty isstatisticalin nature, and the second issystematic.

Interacting quarks

edit

As described byquantum chromodynamics,thestrong interactionbetween quarks is mediated by gluons, masslessvectorgauge bosons.Each gluon carries one color charge and one anticolor charge. In the standard framework of particle interactions (part of a more general formulation known asperturbation theory), gluons are constantly exchanged between quarks through avirtualemission and absorption process. When a gluon is transferred between quarks, a color change occurs in both; for example, if a red quark emits a red–antigreen gluon, it becomes green, and if a green quark absorbs a red–antigreen gluon, it becomes red. Therefore, while each quark's color constantly changes, their strong interaction is preserved.[88][89][90]

Since gluons carry color charge, they themselves are able to emit and absorb other gluons. This causesasymptotic freedom:as quarks come closer to each other, the chromodynamic binding force between them weakens.[91]Conversely, as the distance between quarks increases, the binding force strengthens. The color field becomes stressed, much as an elastic band is stressed when stretched, and more gluons of appropriate color are spontaneously created to strengthen the field. Above a certain energy threshold, pairs of quarks and antiquarksare created.These pairs bind with the quarks being separated, causing new hadrons to form. This phenomenon is known ascolor confinement:quarks never appear in isolation.[92][93]This process ofhadronizationoccurs before quarks formed in a high energy collision are able to interact in any other way. The only exception is the top quark, which may decay before it hadronizes.[94]

Sea quarks

edit

Hadrons contain, along with thevalence quarks(
q
v
) that contribute to theirquantum numbers,virtualquark–antiquark (
q

q
) pairs known assea quarks(
q
s
). Sea quarks form when a gluon of the hadron's color field splits; this process also works in reverse in that theannihilationof two sea quarks produces a gluon. The result is a constant flux of gluon splits and creations colloquially known as "the sea".[95]Sea quarks are much less stable than their valence counterparts, and they typically annihilate each other within the interior of the hadron. Despite this, sea quarks can hadronize into baryonic or mesonic particles under certain circumstances.[96]

Other phases of quark matter

edit
A qualitative rendering of thephase diagramof quark matter. The precise details of the diagram are the subject of ongoing research.[97][98]

Under sufficiently extreme conditions, quarks may become "deconfined" out of bound states and propagate as thermalized "free" excitations in the larger medium. In the course ofasymptotic freedom,the strong interaction becomes weaker at increasing temperatures. Eventually, color confinement would be effectively lost in an extremely hotplasmaof freely moving quarks and gluons. This theoretical phase of matter is calledquark–gluon plasma.[99]

The exact conditions needed to give rise to this state are unknown and have been the subject of a great deal of speculation and experimentation. An estimate puts the needed temperature at(1.90±0.02)×1012kelvin.[100]While a state of entirely free quarks and gluons has never been achieved (despite numerous attempts byCERNin the 1980s and 1990s),[101]recent experiments at theRelativistic Heavy Ion Colliderhave yielded evidence for liquid-like quark matter exhibiting "nearly perfect"fluid motion.[102]

The quark–gluon plasma would be characterized by a great increase in the number of heavier quark pairs in relation to the number of up and down quark pairs. It is believed that in the period prior to 10−6seconds after theBig Bang(thequark epoch), the universe was filled with quark–gluon plasma, as the temperature was too high for hadrons to be stable.[103]

Given sufficiently high baryon densities and relatively low temperatures – possibly comparable to those found inneutron stars– quark matter is expected to degenerate into aFermi liquidof weakly interacting quarks. This liquid would be characterized by acondensationof colored quarkCooper pairs,therebybreaking the local SU(3)csymmetry.Because quark Cooper pairs harbor color charge, such a phase of quark matter would becolor superconductive;that is, color charge would be able to pass through it with no resistance.[104]

See also

edit

Explanatory notes

edit
  1. ^There is also the theoretical possibility ofmore exotic phases of quark matter.
  2. ^The main evidence is based on theresonance widthof the
    Z0
    boson
    ,which constrains the 4th generation neutrino to have a mass greater than ~45 GeV/c2.This would be highly contrasting with the other three generations' neutrinos, whose masses cannot exceed2 MeV/c2.
  3. ^CP violation is a phenomenon that causes weak interactions to behave differently when left and right are swapped (P symmetry) and particles are replaced with their corresponding antiparticles (C symmetry).
  4. ^"Beauty" and "truth" are contrasted in the last lines ofKeats' 1819 poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn"and may have been the origin of those names.[63][64][65]
  5. ^The actual probability of decay of one quark to another is a complicated function of (among other variables) the decaying quark's mass, the masses of thedecay products,and the corresponding element of the CKM matrix. This probability is directly proportional (but not equal) to the magnitude squared (|Vij|2) of the corresponding CKM entry.
  6. ^Despite its name, color charge is not related to the color spectrum of visible light.

References

edit
  1. ^ "Quark (subatomic particle)".Encyclopædia Britannica.Retrieved29 June2008.
  2. ^ R. Nave."Confinement of Quarks".HyperPhysics.Georgia State University,Department of Physics and Astronomy.Retrieved29 June2008.
  3. ^ R. Nave."Bag Model of Quark Confinement".HyperPhysics.Georgia State University,Department of Physics and Astronomy.Retrieved29 June2008.
  4. ^ab R. Nave."Quarks".HyperPhysics.Georgia State University,Department of Physics and Astronomy.Retrieved29 June2008.
  5. ^abcd B. Carithers; P. Grannis (1995)."Discovery of the Top Quark"(PDF).Beam Line.25(3): 4–16.Retrieved23 September2008.
  6. ^ab E. D. Bloom; et al. (1969)."High-Energy InelasticepScattering at 6° and 10° ".Physical Review Letters.23(16): 930–934.Bibcode:1969PhRvL..23..930B.doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.23.930.
  7. ^ab M. Breidenbach; et al. (1969). "Observed Behavior of Highly Inelastic Electron–Proton Scattering".Physical Review Letters.23(16): 935–939.Bibcode:1969PhRvL..23..935B.doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.23.935.OSTI1444731.S2CID2575595.
  8. ^ S. S. M. Wong (1998).Introductory Nuclear Physics(2nd ed.).Wiley Interscience.p. 30.ISBN978-0-471-23973-4.
  9. ^ K. A. Peacock (2008).The Quantum Revolution.Greenwood Publishing Group.p.125.ISBN978-0-313-33448-1.
  10. ^ B. Povh; C. Scholz; K. Rith; F. Zetsche (2008).Particles and Nuclei.Springer.p. 98.ISBN978-3-540-79367-0.
  11. ^Section 6.1. in P. C. W. Davies (1979).The Forces of Nature.Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-22523-6.
  12. ^abc M. Munowitz (2005).Knowing.Oxford University Press.p.35.ISBN978-0-19-516737-5.
  13. ^ W.-M. Yao; et al. (Particle Data Group) (2006)."Review of Particle Physics: Pentaquark Update"(PDF).Journal of Physics G.33(1): 1–1232.arXiv:astro-ph/0601168.Bibcode:2006JPhG...33....1Y.doi:10.1088/0954-3899/33/1/001.
  14. ^ S.-K. Choi; et al. (Belle Collaboration) (2008). "Observation of a Resonance-like Structure in the
    π±
    Ψ′ Mass Distribution in Exclusive B→K
    π±
    Ψ′ decays ".Physical Review Letters.100(14): 142001.arXiv:0708.1790.Bibcode:2008PhRvL.100n2001C.doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.142001.PMID18518023.S2CID119138620.
  15. ^ "Belle Discovers a New Type of Meson"(Press release).KEK.2007. Archived fromthe originalon 22 January 2009.Retrieved20 June2009.
  16. ^ R. Aaij; et al. (LHCb collaboration) (2014). "Observation of the Resonant Character of the Z(4430)State ".Physical Review Letters.112(22): 222002.arXiv:1404.1903.Bibcode:2014PhRvL.112v2002A.doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.222002.PMID24949760.S2CID904429.
  17. ^ R. Aaij; et al. (LHCb collaboration) (2015)."Observation of J/ψp Resonances Consistent with Pentaquark States in Λ0
    b
    →J/ψKp Decays "
    .Physical Review Letters.115(7): 072001.arXiv:1507.03414.Bibcode:2015PhRvL.115g2001A.doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.072001.PMID26317714.
  18. ^ C. Amsler; et al. (Particle Data Group) (2008)."Review of Particle Physics: b′ (4th Generation) Quarks, Searches for"(PDF).Physics Letters B.667(1): 1–1340.Bibcode:2008PhLB..667....1A.doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2008.07.018.hdl:1854/LU-685594.S2CID227119789.
  19. ^ C. Amsler; et al. (Particle Data Group) (2008)."Review of Particle Physics: t′ (4th Generation) Quarks, Searches for"(PDF).Physics Letters B.667(1): 1–1340.Bibcode:2008PhLB..667....1A.doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2008.07.018.hdl:1854/LU-685594.S2CID227119789.
  20. ^ D. Decamp; et al. (ALEPH Collaboration) (1989)."Determination of the Number of Light Neutrino Species"(PDF).Physics Letters B.231(4): 519.Bibcode:1989PhLB..231..519D.doi:10.1016/0370-2693(89)90704-1.
  21. ^ A. Fisher (1991)."Searching for the Beginning of Time: Cosmic Connection".Popular Science.238(4): 70.
  22. ^ J. D. Barrow (1997) [1994]. "The Singularity and Other Problems".The Origin of the Universe(Reprint ed.).Basic Books.ISBN978-0-465-05314-8.
  23. ^ D. H. Perkins (2003).Particle Astrophysics.Oxford University Press.p.4.ISBN978-0-19-850952-3.
  24. ^ab M. Gell-Mann (1964). "A Schematic Model of Baryons and Mesons".Physics Letters.8(3): 214–215.Bibcode:1964PhL.....8..214G.doi:10.1016/S0031-9163(64)92001-3.
  25. ^ab G. Zweig (17 January 1964)."An SU(3) Model for Strong Interaction Symmetry and its Breaking"(PDF).CERN Document Server.CERN-TH-401.
  26. ^ab G. Zweig (21 February 1964)."An SU(3) Model for Strong Interaction Symmetry and its Breaking: II".CERN Document Server.doi:10.17181/CERN-TH-412.CERN-TH-412.
  27. ^ M. Gell-Mann (2000) [1964]. "The Eightfold Way: A Theory of Strong Interaction Symmetry". In M. Gell-Mann, Y. Ne'eman (ed.).The Eightfold Way.Westview Press.p. 11.ISBN978-0-7382-0299-0.
    Original: M. Gell-Mann (1961).The Eightfold Way: A Theory of Strong Interaction Symmetry(Report).California Institute of TechnologySynchrotron Laboratory.doi:10.2172/4008239.CTSL-20 – via University of North Texas.
  28. ^ Y. Ne'eman (2000) [1964]. "Derivation of Strong Interactions from Gauge Invariance". In M. Gell-Mann, Y. Ne'eman (ed.).The Eightfold Way.Westview Press.ISBN978-0-7382-0299-0.
    Original Y. Ne'eman (1961). "Derivation of Strong Interactions from Gauge Invariance".Nuclear Physics.26(2): 222.Bibcode:1961NucPh..26..222N.doi:10.1016/0029-5582(61)90134-1.
  29. ^ R. C. Olby; G. N. Cantor (1996).Companion to the History of Modern Science.Taylor & Francis.p. 673.ISBN978-0-415-14578-7.
  30. ^ A. Pickering (1984).Constructing Quarks.University of Chicago Press.pp. 114–125.ISBN978-0-226-66799-7.
  31. ^ B. J. Bjorken; S. L. Glashow (1964). "Elementary Particles and SU(4)".Physics Letters.11(3): 255–257.Bibcode:1964PhL....11..255B.doi:10.1016/0031-9163(64)90433-0.
  32. ^ J. I. Friedman."The Road to the Nobel Prize".Huế University.Archived fromthe originalon 25 December 2008.Retrieved29 September2008.
  33. ^ R. P. Feynman (1969)."Very High-Energy Collisions of Hadrons"(PDF).Physical Review Letters.23(24): 1415–1417.Bibcode:1969PhRvL..23.1415F.doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.23.1415.
  34. ^ S. Kretzer; H. L. Lai; F. I. Olness; W. K. Tung (2004). "CTEQ6 Parton Distributions with Heavy Quark Mass Effects".Physical Review D.69(11): 114005.arXiv:hep-ph/0307022.Bibcode:2004PhRvD..69k4005K.doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.69.114005.S2CID119379329.
  35. ^ab D. J. Griffiths (1987).Introduction to Elementary Particles.John Wiley & Sons.p.42.ISBN978-0-471-60386-3.
  36. ^ M. E. Peskin; D. V. Schroeder (1995).An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory.Addison–Wesley.p.556.ISBN978-0-201-50397-5.
  37. ^ V. V. Ezhela (1996).Particle Physics.Springer.p. 2.ISBN978-1-56396-642-2.
  38. ^ S. L. Glashow; J. Iliopoulos; L. Maiani (1970). "Weak Interactions with Lepton–Hadron Symmetry".Physical Review D.2(7): 1285–1292.Bibcode:1970PhRvD...2.1285G.doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.2.1285.
  39. ^ D. J. Griffiths (1987).Introduction to Elementary Particles.John Wiley & Sons.p.44.ISBN978-0-471-60386-3.
  40. ^ M. Kobayashi; T. Maskawa (1973)."CP-Violation in the Renormalizable Theory of Weak Interaction".Progress of Theoretical Physics.49(2): 652–657.Bibcode:1973PThPh..49..652K.doi:10.1143/PTP.49.652.hdl:2433/66179.
  41. ^ab H. Harari (1975). "A New Quark Model for hadrons".Physics Letters B.57(3): 265.Bibcode:1975PhLB...57..265H.doi:10.1016/0370-2693(75)90072-6.
  42. ^ab K. W. Staley (2004).The Evidence for the Top Quark.Cambridge University Press.pp. 31–33.ISBN978-0-521-82710-2.
  43. ^ S. W. Herb; et al. (1977). "Observation of a Dimuon Resonance at 9.5 GeV in 400-GeV Proton–Nucleus Collisions".Physical Review Letters.39(5): 252.Bibcode:1977PhRvL..39..252H.doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.39.252.OSTI1155396.
  44. ^ M. Bartusiak (1994).A Positron named Priscilla.National Academies Press.p.245.ISBN978-0-309-04893-4.
  45. ^ F. Abe; et al. (CDF Collaboration) (1995). "Observation of Top Quark Production in
    p

    p
    Collisions with the Collider Detector at Fermilab ".Physical Review Letters.74(14): 2626–2631.arXiv:hep-ex/9503002.Bibcode:1995PhRvL..74.2626A.doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.74.2626.PMID10057978.S2CID119451328.
  46. ^ S. Abachi; et al. (DØ Collaboration) (1995). "Observation of the Top Quark".Physical Review Letters.74(14): 2632–2637.arXiv:hep-ex/9503003.Bibcode:1995PhRvL..74.2632A.doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.74.2632.PMID10057979.S2CID42826202.
  47. ^ K. W. Staley (2004).The Evidence for the Top Quark.Cambridge University Press.p. 144.ISBN978-0-521-82710-2.
  48. ^ "New Precision Measurement of Top Quark Mass".Brookhaven National Laboratory News.2004. Archived fromthe originalon 5 March 2016.Retrieved3 November2013.
  49. ^ J. Joyce (1982) [1939].Finnegans Wake.Penguin Books.p.383.ISBN978-0-14-006286-1.
  50. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.Retrieved2 October2020.
  51. ^ L. Crispi; S. Slote (2007).How Joyce Wrote Finnegans Wake. A Chapter-by-Chapter Genetic Guide.University of Wisconsin Press.p. 345.ISBN978-0-299-21860-7.
  52. ^ H. Fritzsch (2007).Das absolut Unveränderliche. Die letzten Rätsel der Physik.Piper Verlag.p. 99.ISBN978-3-492-24985-0.
  53. ^ S. Pronk-Tiethoff (2013).The Germanic loanwords in Proto-Slavic.Rodopi.p. 71.ISBN978-94-012-0984-7.
  54. ^ "What Does 'Quark' Have to Do with Finnegans Wake?".Merriam-Webster.Retrieved17 January2018.
  55. ^ U. Schnabel (16 September 2020)."Quarks sind so real wie der Papst".Die Zeit.Retrieved2 October2020.
  56. ^ H. Beck (2 February 2017)."Alles Quark? Die Mythen der Physiker und James Joyce".Literaturportal Bayern.Retrieved2 October2020.
  57. ^ G. E. P. Gillespie."Why Joyce Is and Is Not Responsible for the Quark in Contemporary Physics"(PDF).Papers on Joyce 16.Retrieved17 January2018.
  58. ^ M. Gell-Mann (1995).The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex.Henry Holt and Co.p. 180.ISBN978-0-8050-7253-2.
  59. ^ J. Gleick (1992).Genius: Richard Feynman and Modern Physics.Little Brown and Company.p. 390.ISBN978-0-316-90316-5.
  60. ^ J. J. Sakurai (1994). S. F. Tuan (ed.).Modern Quantum Mechanics(Revised ed.).Addison–Wesley.p.376.ISBN978-0-201-53929-5.
  61. ^ab D. H. Perkins (2000).Introduction to High Energy Physics.Cambridge University Press.p.8.ISBN978-0-521-62196-0.
  62. ^ M. Riordan (1987).The Hunting of the Quark: A True Story of Modern Physics.Simon & Schuster.p.210.ISBN978-0-671-50466-3.
  63. ^W. B. Rolnick (2003).Remnants Of The Fall: Revelations Of Particle Secrets.World Scientific.p.136.ISBN978-981-238-060-9.Retrieved14 October2018.quark keats truth beauty.
  64. ^N. Mee (2012).Higgs Force: Cosmic Symmetry Shattered.Quantum Wave Publishing.ISBN978-0-9572746-1-7.Retrieved14 October2018.
  65. ^P. Gooden (2016).May We Borrow Your Language?: How English Steals Words From All Over the World.Head of Zeus.ISBN978-1-78497-798-6.Retrieved14 October2018.
  66. ^ F. Close (2006).The New Cosmic Onion.CRC Press.p. 133.ISBN978-1-58488-798-0.
  67. ^ J. T. Volk; et al. (1987)."Letter of Intent for a Tevatron Beauty Factory"(PDF).Fermilab Proposal #783.
  68. ^ C. Quigg (2006). "Particles and the Standard Model". In G. Fraser (ed.).The New Physics for the Twenty-First Century.Cambridge University Press.p. 91.ISBN978-0-521-81600-7.
  69. ^ "The Standard Model of Particle Physics".BBC. 2002.Retrieved19 April2009.
  70. ^ F. Close (2006).The New Cosmic Onion.CRC Press.pp. 80–90.ISBN978-1-58488-798-0.
  71. ^ D. Lincoln (2004).Understanding the Universe.World Scientific.p.116.ISBN978-981-238-705-9.
  72. ^ "Weak Interactions".Virtual Visitor Center.Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.2008. Archived fromthe originalon 23 November 2011.Retrieved28 September2008.
  73. ^ K. Nakamura; et al. (Particle Data Group) (2010)."Review of Particles Physics: The CKM Quark-Mi xing Matrix"(PDF).Journal of Physics G.37(7A): 075021.Bibcode:2010JPhG...37g5021N.doi:10.1088/0954-3899/37/7A/075021.
  74. ^ Z. Maki; M. Nakagawa; S. Sakata (1962)."Remarks on the Unified Model of Elementary Particles".Progress of Theoretical Physics.28(5): 870.Bibcode:1962PThPh..28..870M.doi:10.1143/PTP.28.870.
  75. ^ B. C. Chauhan; M. Picariello; J. Pulido; E. Torrente-Lujan (2007). "Quark–Lepton Complementarity, Neutrino and Standard Model Data PredictθPMNS
    13
    =+1°
    −2°
    ".European Physical Journal.C50(3): 573–578.arXiv:hep-ph/0605032.Bibcode:2007EPJC...50..573C.doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-007-0212-z.S2CID118107624.
  76. ^ R. Nave."The Color Force".HyperPhysics.Georgia State University,Department of Physics and Astronomy.Retrieved26 April2009.
  77. ^ B. A. Schumm (2004).Deep Down Things.Johns Hopkins University Press.pp.131–132.ISBN978-0-8018-7971-5.
  78. ^abPart III of M. E. Peskin; D. V. Schroeder (1995).An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory.Addison–Wesley.ISBN978-0-201-50397-5.
  79. ^ V. Icke (1995).The Force of Symmetry.Cambridge University Press.p.216.ISBN978-0-521-45591-6.
  80. ^ M. Y. Han (2004).A Story of Light.World Scientific.p.78.ISBN978-981-256-034-6.
  81. ^ C. Sutton."Quantum Chromodynamics (physics)".Encyclopædia Britannica Online.Retrieved12 May2009.
  82. ^ A. Watson (2004).The Quantum Quark.Cambridge University Press.pp. 285–286.ISBN978-0-521-82907-6.
  83. ^abc K. A. Olive; et al. (Particle Data Group) (2014)."Review of Particle Physics".Chinese Physics C.38(9): 1–708.arXiv:1412.1408.Bibcode:2014ChPhC..38i0001O.doi:10.1088/1674-1137/38/9/090001.PMID10020536.
  84. ^ W. Weise; A. M. Green (1984).Quarks and Nuclei.World Scientific.pp. 65–66.ISBN978-9971-966-61-4.
  85. ^ D. McMahon (2008).Quantum Field Theory Demystified.McGraw–Hill.p.17.ISBN978-0-07-154382-8.
  86. ^ S. G. Roth (2007).Precision Electroweak Physics at Electron–Positron Colliders.Springer.p. VI.ISBN978-3-540-35164-1.
  87. ^"Smaller than Small: Looking for Something New With the LHC by Don LincolnPBS Novablog 28 October 2014 ".PBS.28 October 2014.
  88. ^ R. P. Feynman (1985).QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter(1st ed.).Princeton University Press.pp.136–137.ISBN978-0-691-08388-9.
  89. ^ M. Veltman (2003).Facts and Mysteries in Elementary Particle Physics.World Scientific.pp.45–47.ISBN978-981-238-149-1.
  90. ^ F. Wilczek; B. Devine (2006).Fantastic Realities.World Scientific.p.85.ISBN978-981-256-649-2.
  91. ^ F. Wilczek; B. Devine (2006).Fantastic Realities.World Scientific.pp. 400ff.ISBN978-981-256-649-2.
  92. ^ M. Veltman (2003).Facts and Mysteries in Elementary Particle Physics.World Scientific.pp.295–297.ISBN978-981-238-149-1.
  93. ^ T. Yulsman (2002).Origin.CRC Press.p. 55.ISBN978-0-7503-0765-9.
  94. ^ P. A. Zyla; et al. (Particle Data Group) (2020)."Top quark"(PDF).Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics.2020:083C01.
  95. ^ J. Steinberger (2005).Learning about Particles.Springer.p.130.ISBN978-3-540-21329-1.
  96. ^ C.-Y. Wong (1994).Introduction to High-energy Heavy-ion Collisions.World Scientific.p. 149.ISBN978-981-02-0263-7.
  97. ^ S. B. Rüester; V. Werth; M. Buballa; I. A. Shovkovy; D. H. Rischke (2005). "The Phase Diagram of Neutral Quark Natter: Self-consistent Treatment of Quark Masses".Physical Review D.72(3): 034003.arXiv:hep-ph/0503184.Bibcode:2005PhRvD..72c4004R.doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.72.034004.S2CID10487860.
  98. ^ M. G. Alford; K. Rajagopal; T. Schaefer; A. Schmitt (2008). "Color Superconductivity in Dense Quark Matter".Reviews of Modern Physics.80(4): 1455–1515.arXiv:0709.4635.Bibcode:2008RvMP...80.1455A.doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.80.1455.S2CID14117263.
  99. ^ S. Mrowczynski (1998). "Quark–Gluon Plasma".Acta Physica Polonica B.29(12): 3711.arXiv:nucl-th/9905005.Bibcode:1998AcPPB..29.3711M.
  100. ^ Z. Fodor; S. D. Katz (2004)."Critical Point of QCD at Finite T and μ, Lattice Results for Physical Quark Masses".Journal of High Energy Physics.2004(4): 50.arXiv:hep-lat/0402006.Bibcode:2004JHEP...04..050F.doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2004/04/050.
  101. ^ U. Heinz; M. Jacob (2000). "Evidence for a New State of Matter: An Assessment of the Results from the CERN Lead Beam Programme".arXiv:nucl-th/0002042.
  102. ^ "RHIC Scientists Serve Up" Perfect "Liquid".Brookhaven National Laboratory.2005. Archived fromthe originalon 15 April 2013.Retrieved22 May2009.
  103. ^ T. Yulsman (2002).Origins: The Quest for Our Cosmic Roots.CRC Press.p. 75.ISBN978-0-7503-0765-9.
  104. ^ A. Sedrakian; J. W. Clark; M. G. Alford (2007).Pairing in Fermionic Systems.World Scientific.pp.2–3.ISBN978-981-256-907-3.

Further reading

edit
edit