Is the heaviest of the leptons. And is, therefore, not made up of quarks and in fact, according to our current understanding of the subatomic world, not divisible at all. (Of course, that may change; we once thought the hadrons were indivisible, as well.)
Originally posted by Shallow Blue Is the heaviest of the leptons. And is, therefore, not made up of quarks and in fact, according to our current understanding of the subatomic world, not divisible at all. (Of course, that may change; we once thought the hadrons were indivisible, as well.)
Richard
Funny part about leptons is, like the Tau, it can decay into a quark and other particles.
Originally posted by sonhouse Funny part about leptons is, like the Tau, it can decay into a quark and other particles.
Works the other way too, for example in beta decay you create leptons. The creation (destruction) of leptops is restricted through lepton number conservation (among other things).
Originally posted by KazetNagorra Works the other way too, for example in beta decay you create leptons. The creation (destruction) of leptops is restricted through lepton number conservation (among other things).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lepton_number
Which one lasts longer, the muon or the tau, before they self destruct?
Originally posted by sonhouse Which one lasts longer, the muon or the tau, before they self destruct?
Generally in particle physics the heavier something is the more unstable and short lived it is.
That's why you need big particle colliders to create the energies needed to create these heavy
particles that are often not otherwise seen in nature (or are very rare and hard to find) because
when created they rapidly decay.
Originally posted by KazetNagorra No. A proton is a composite particle consisting of three quarks (two up, one down). An antiproton is similar, but consists of two anti-up and one anti-down quark. The quarks are glued together by the strong nuclear force, transmitted through particles called gluons (like the photons that transmit electromagnetic interactions).