Jump to content

Elementary particle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Glenn (talk | contribs) at 11:33, 8 November 2003. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.


In the Standard Model of particle physics, matter is constituted by 12 particle types and their antiparticles. Matter particules are divided into two classes: quarks and leptons. All other particles, like protons or neutrons are made of quarks, hence the name fundamental particles.

In addition, gluons, photons, W and Z bosons, which are the force carrier particles for, respectively, the strong, electromagnetic and weak interactions, are also considered as fundamental particles.

See also