Particle Oddities: Theories Explained

[mathman]

Is there any current theory for the following oddities?

1. Quarks come in pairs (up,down). (charm,strange), (top,bottom). The up and down are approximately the same size (mass). However, the charm is much heavier than the strange and the top is much heavier than the bottom. How come?

2. The only stable baryons (under normal conditions) are those made up of up and down quarks. The only stable charged lepton is the electron. However, in the case of neutrinos, they all seem to morph into each other. How come?

 

[ohwilleke]

Is there any current theory for the following oddities?in the case of neutrinos, they all seem to morph into each other. How come?

There are lots of theories and there is little consensus.

 

[nightcleaner]

Hi mathman and ohwilleke
I live near the Soudan mine where there is an experiment underway to study neutrinos. I have read about it a little but have no reason to suppose that my information sources are different from yours. Neutrinos seem to go through a phase shift through the three types as they travel, etc.

We could collect a set of reference links here that might be of use in some study. I'll go look for things about Soudan and come back.

nc

A quick check of google for Soudan neutrinos turns up lots of news release stuff. And of course you can buy them on Ebay. Heck, I'll sell you some of mine if you are interested.

nc

here is a bite from the WCCO page:

"When operating, Fermi's half-mile-long accelerator will shoot 10 trillion neutrinos at Soudan every two seconds in pulses lasting only ten-millionths of a second. The neutrinos will arrive at Soudan after 2.5 milliseconds.

"Out of the trillions and trillions of neutrinos that are going to go up there each year, they expect to see about 1,500 collisions a year," said Fermi spokesman Mike Perricone. "

nc