Lepton
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Leptons are elementary particles with spin 1/2 (a fermion) that are not affected by strong nuclear force. They are a family of particles that are different from the other known family of fermions, the quarks.
Electrons are a well-known examples that are found in ordinary matter.There are six leptons: the electron, muon, and tau particles and their associated neutrinos. The different varieties of the elementary particles are commonly called "flavors", and the neutrinos here are considered to have distinctly different flavor. Of the six leptons, three have electrical charge and three don't. The best known charged lepton is the electron (e). The other two charged leptons are the muon (µ) and the tau (), which are essentially electrons with a lot more mass. The charged leptons are all negative.
Particles in Physics | |||
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Elementary: | Fermions: | Quarks: up - down - strange - charm - bottom - top Leptons: electron - muon - tau - neutrinos |
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Bosons: | Gauge bosons: photon - W and Z bosons - gluons | ||
Composite: | Hadrons: | Baryons: proton - neutron - hyperon | |
Mesons: pion - kaon - J/ψ | |||
Atomic nuclei - Atoms - Molecules | |||
Hypothetical: | Higgs boson - Graviton |