What is made up of all the rest quarks?

In summary, the proton and neutron are composed of up and down quarks, while the rest of the quarks make up a large family of baryons and mesons. Due to the nature of weak interactions, all baryons and mesons containing heavy quarks are generally unstable and decay relatively fast. However, some hadrons can be considered relatively stable if there are no strong interaction processes leading to their decay, such as the J/psi particle. The longest-lived strange particle is the K0, with a decay time of 16 meters, while the longest-lived strange baryon is the Λ, with a decay time of 7.8 centimeters. In comparison, the neutron has a decay time of 260
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Sheldon73
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The proton and neutron are composed of up and down quarks. What is made up of all the rest quarks?
The proton and neutron are composed of up and down quarks. What is made up of all the rest quarks?
 
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Should be added that due to the nature of weak interactions, all baryons and mesons containing heavy quarks are unstable and generally decay relatively fast. They are not present in large quantities anywhere.
 
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Well, fast is relative. Since the weak interaction is really weak, some hadrons can be considered as quite stable if there's no strong interaction process leading to its decay. A famous example is the ##J/\psi##, which is pretty long-lived because it only decays through the electromagnetic and weak interaction. It has a very narrow width of 92.6 keV (compared to its mass of about 3.1 GeV):

https://pdglive.lbl.gov/Particle.action?init=0&node=M070&home=MXXX025#decayclump_G
 
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Longest lived strange particle is long K0... with ct of 16 m. Longest lived strange baryon is Λ... with 7,8 cm. Whereas n has 260 million km.
 
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Orodruin said:
decay relatively fast
vanhees71 said:
Well, fast is relative.
I don’t see a contradiction here. ;)
 
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1. What are quarks?

Quarks are elementary particles that are the building blocks of matter. They are the smallest known particles and make up protons and neutrons, which in turn make up the nucleus of an atom.

2. How many types of quarks are there?

There are six known types of quarks: up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom. They are often referred to as "flavors".

3. What is the role of quarks in the Standard Model of particle physics?

Quarks are one of the fundamental particles in the Standard Model, which is a theory that describes the fundamental particles and forces that make up the universe. Quarks are responsible for the strong nuclear force, which holds the nucleus of an atom together.

4. How are quarks different from other particles?

Quarks are unique in that they have a property called "color charge", which is a property that describes how they interact with the strong nuclear force. Quarks also have a fractional electric charge, meaning they can have a charge of either +2/3 or -1/3, unlike other particles which have integer charges.

5. Can quarks exist independently?

No, quarks cannot exist independently. They are always found in groups of two or three, bound together by the strong nuclear force. This is why we do not observe isolated quarks in nature.

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