Complex Shit in 15 Slides: Understand the “Standard Model”

created by Jack Tucker

**This is an extremely high-level picture**

• The model attempts to easily explain how the fundamental particles interact with each other

• Go through the slides consecutively. Use “click me” notices or underlined hyperlinks to quickly jump to a specific slide for a particle or force

• The model in the top-left is to help show which “level” of the atom is being discussed. All particles within it are click-able

Click-able

Electron

Nucleus

Simple Atom(Hydrogen-2 Isotope; Deuterium)

Orbital: Not able to know exact position and momentum of an electron. Until observed, the electron is in all places within the orbital at the same time. (Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal)

(Click-able)

(Force Particle “Exchange”)

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Inside the Nucleus

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+Proton

Neutron

(Click-able Items)

(Force

Parti

cle “E

xchan

ge”)

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e-

ELECTRON

Member of the “Fermion” family,but really is a “Lepton”

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Has a negative charge; no known components

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Inside the Proton

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+(Click-able Items)

Up

Down

Up(Force Particle “Exchange”)

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Baryon

Fermions, A.K.A. Quarks

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Inside the Neutron

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+(Click-able Items)

Up

Down

Down

Fermions, A.K.A. Quarks

(Force Particle “Exchange”)

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Baryon

[Back to Beginning]

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Fermions(The “matter” Particles)

Two Types

Leptons Quarks

Lepton:Part of

Generation

Electron (-) 1

Muon (-) 2

Tau (-) 3

Quark:Part of

Generation

Up 1

Down 1

Charm 2

Strange 2

Top 3

Bottom 3

Force Carriers

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These two groups interact with each other using the ‘force carriers’ to form

the matter we can see and touch

Theorized force and particle interactions [Back to Beginning]

Force Carriers(Gives ‘force’ to the interactions between fermions)

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A way to think about this is that fermions (leptons and quarks) “exchange” the

particles below, resulting in the correct force, creating what we can see and touch.

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Force Name Mediated/"Carried", by How used?

Electromagnetism Photons electromagnetic spectrum

Weak Force W+, W-, Z Bosons formation of chemical elements

Strong Force Gluons holds protons, neutrons in the nucleus

Gravity graviton? Gravity, general relativity

Theorized force and particle interactions

[Back to Beginning]

Quarks

• A grouping is a “hadron”. A hadron of 3 quarks is a “baryon”• So, protons and neutrons are baryons.

• Quarks are never found in isolation, only grouped together (hadron)

• Quarks are the only elementary particles that experience all of the force carriers (electromagnetism, weak, strong, gravitational)

• All “normal” matter consists of Up and Down quarks

Could Charm/Strange & Top/Bottom combine to make a heavier version of a proton and neutron?

Quark:

Up

Down

Charm

Strange

Top

Bottom

Decr

easin

g M

ass

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• Quark types are known as “flavors” • (Up, Down, Top, Bottom, Charm, Strange)

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Leptons

Lepton:

Electron (-)

Muon (-)

Tau (-)

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Decr

easin

g M

ass

Electron: has a negative charge; no known components;the natural ‘populator’ of atomic orbitals

Muon: Identical in every way to an electron except it’s heavier; decays into electron quickly; Able to replace electrons in atoms (Muonic Atom)! -Due to larger mass, atom would be smaller than normal

Tau: Also identical to an electron except it’s even heavier; decays into electron quickly; Able to replace electrons and muons in atoms (in theory)

Neutrino Particles: Not depicted in the presentation. Identical to their counterpart (electron, muon, tau) but without any electrical charge. (Easily confused with neutron)

Muon’s and Tau’s beg the question of why are there heavier copies of electrons?Additional Questions

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Higgs BosonEnd Presentation

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• Has not yet been observed. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was constructed to attempt to find this particle. (They’re getting really close)

• Can hopefully explain why particles have mass. i.e. Why the photon and gluon have no mass and the W and Z bosons are incredibly massive.

• By understanding why force particles have mass, we can better understand the how matter is formed.

Theorized force and particle interactions [Back to Beginning]

Graviton

• Not a recognized force carrier within the standard model, yet. But we know something needs to account for gravity.

• We know ‘general relativity’ (i.e. faster you go, slower time goes) is true because we see the results of it each day (used in GPS). It is attributed to gravity which affects space-time but we have no way of pointing to a specific force carrier that exhibits those traits like we can with all other phenomenon

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Theorized force and particle interactions

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[Back to Beginning]

Final Questions

• If all normal matter is made from electrons and up/down quarks, part of generation 1. Could you make an entire new set of matter from generation 2 and 3? After all, those particles are identical to generation 1, just heavier.

• Could there be other universes where the muon and tau particles are normally used in the atom rather than the electron?

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