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Moth
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Masses of quarks, leptons and bosons are often given as a range of values. How are the masses measured experimentally, why are they so inaccurate and how are they being made more accurate?
Moth said:Masses of quarks, leptons and bosons are often given as a range of values. How are the masses measured experimentally, why are they so inaccurate and how are they being made more accurate?
Moth said:Masses of quarks, leptons and bosons are often given as a range of values. How are the masses measured experimentally, why are they so inaccurate and how are they being made more accurate?
are inferred from models, except for the top quark.Moth said:Masses of quarks,
the electron and muon and known since old. For the neutrinos, mass differences are inferred from experiment, assuming three neutrinosleptons
bosons that suffer strong decay have short lifetimes, so it is not only difficult to measure directly, but indirectly the Breit Wigner width is very wide and it is not easy to locate the peak.and bosons
The three classes you mention are quite different.Moth said:Masses of quarks, leptons and bosons are often given as a range of values. How are the masses measured experimentally, why are they so inaccurate and how are they being made more accurate?
Moth said:I understand how it is possible to measure mass by deflection in a magnetic field or from resonances due to collisions. But estimating the mass of quarks by theory must be quite challenging. Also the Higgs boson, which not been seen, has been given an estimated mass of 120GeV, I assume is due to a theory.
What kind of experiment would test a quark mass theory? For example I am currently using a program called calcHEP, which allows me to compute particle decay or collision properties. Do any of these experiments involve decays or collisions?
blechman said:I think you misunderstood the phrase "quark mass theory". Like I said, you can NEVER truly measure the quark mass, except for the top quark.
Meir Achuz said:Quarks have never been produced, so there masses can only be inferred using some theory, and comparing with experimental results that depend on the quark mass. Different theories can give different values for the quark mass.
Moth said:And which experiments have been done traditionally to test these theories. So that I might research them in more detail.
Particle masses are measured using a device called a particle accelerator. This machine uses strong electric and magnetic fields to accelerate particles to high speeds, and then measures the curvature of their paths to determine their masses.
The most commonly used unit to measure particle masses is the electron volt (eV). However, for larger particles, such as protons and neutrons, the unit of mass is expressed in kilogram (kg) or atomic mass units (amu).
Scientists determine the mass of a specific particle by comparing it to a standard mass, such as the mass of a carbon-12 atom. They use the known mass of the standard particle to calculate the mass of the unknown particle.
Yes, particle masses can change under certain conditions. According to the theory of relativity, the mass of a particle increases as it approaches the speed of light. Additionally, particles can also gain or lose mass through interactions with other particles.
Particle mass measurements are extremely precise, with some measurements reaching up to 10 decimal places. However, due to the uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics, it is impossible to measure the mass of a particle with 100% accuracy.