How many elementary particles are there?

Click For Summary
The discussion revolves around the confusion regarding the number of elementary particles in the standard model. The standard model includes 6 quarks, 6 antiquarks, 6 leptons, and 5 bosons, but a reference to Griffith's book suggests a higher count of 12 leptons, 36 quarks, and 12 mediators. The discrepancy arises from the inclusion of color charge in quarks, which accounts for additional varieties, and the 8 gluons that contribute to the total. The Higgs boson and graviton are mentioned as additional bosons, though their verification remains uncertain. Overall, the conversation highlights the complexity of particle classification in physics.
ehrenfest
Messages
2,001
Reaction score
1
I am confused. I thought that the standard model included 6 quarks and 6 antiquarks, 6 leptons and 6 antileptons and 5 bosons (W+,W-,Z,photon,gluon).

However in Griffith's "Introduction to Elementary Particles" (on page 48) he says that there are "12 leptons, 36 quarks, 12 mediators".

I am thinking of the t,b,u,d,s,c and their antiparticles for the quarks.

So can someone please account for the remaining 24 quarks and the remaining 7 bosons?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
ehrenfest said:
So can someone please account for the remaining 24 quarks and the remaining 7 bosons?
Color is as good a charge as electric charge. You miss a factor 3 on quarks, and a factor 9 on gluons minus one color scalar gluon.
 
Higg's Boson and graviton are the only other fundamental bosons I've heard of, and they're not even verified yet.

Oh, if you count the 8 gluons it works out. Der...
 
fedaykin said:
Higg's Boson and graviton are the only other fundamental bosons I've heard of, and they're not even verified yet.
As mentioned by the OP, the photon, the Ws and the Z are other gauge bosons. Those are established beyond doubt.
 
Yeah, I wish I could have deleted that post. For the future, I promise to be less impulsive.
 
Theoretical physicist C.N. Yang died at the age of 103 years on October 18, 2025. He is the Yang in Yang-Mills theory, which he and his collaborators devised in 1953, which is a generic quantum field theory that is used by scientists to study amplitudes (i.e. vector probabilities) that are foundational in all Standard Model processes and most quantum gravity theories. He also won a Nobel prize in 1957 for his work on CP violation. (I didn't see the post in General Discussions at PF on his...

Similar threads

  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
2K
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
3K
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
3K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
1K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
2K
  • · Replies 35 ·
2
Replies
35
Views
8K
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
2K
  • · Replies 13 ·
Replies
13
Views
2K
  • · Replies 10 ·
Replies
10
Views
3K
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
2K