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Feeble Wonk
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Please help me understand. It seems to me that the fractional charge of a quark suggests that this is actually the smallest (most fundamental) unit of charge, and that an electron has a combined unit charge.
Dickfore said:As far as I know, in the standard model, there is no rule that imposes the electric charge of a particle to be an integer multiple of a fundamental charge. .
The fractional charge of quarks refers to the electric charge of these subatomic particles, which is measured in units of elementary charge (e). The three types of quarks (up, down, and strange) have fractional charges of +2/3e, -1/3e, and -1/3e, respectively.
The concept of fractional charge of quarks was proposed by physicists Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig in the 1960s to explain the behavior of strong nuclear forces. It was later confirmed through experiments using high-energy particle accelerators.
No, not all quarks have fractional charges. In addition to the three quarks with fractional charges (up, down, and strange), there are also three quarks with integer charges (charm, bottom, and top). These quarks have charges of +2e/3, -1e/3, and +1e/3, respectively.
The fractional charge of quarks plays a crucial role in determining how they interact with other particles. Quarks with different fractional charges attract each other, while quarks with the same fractional charge repel each other. This is what allows quarks to come together and form protons and neutrons, the building blocks of atomic nuclei.
No, the fractional charge of quarks cannot be observed directly as they are always found bound together in larger particles. However, their effects can be observed through experiments and calculations, providing evidence for their existence and properties.