Quarks are fundamental particles that combine to form neutrons and protons, which are types of hadrons. There are six types of quarks: up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom, each with fractional electric charges of either 2/3 or -1/3. Quarks cannot exist independently and always pair with other quarks to create composite particles. Additionally, string theory posits that quarks and leptons are manifestations of vibrating strings, with their differences arising from the modes of vibration.
PREREQUISITESStudents of physics, quantum engineers, and anyone interested in the fundamental structure of matter and particle interactions.
To start with, there are six types of quarks (plus their six antiquarks), which are coupled into three pairs. They are the up-down, the charm-strange, and the top-bottom (sometimes known as truth-beauty). Another interesting fact about quarks is that you can never find one by itself, as they are always with other quarks arranged to form a composite particle. The name for these composite particles is "hadrons". Quarks, like protons and electrons, have electric charge. However, their electric charges are fractional charges, either 2/3 or -1/3 (-2/3 and 1/3 for antiquarks), and they always arrange to form particles with an integer charge (ie. -1, 0, 1, 2...).
Originally posted by FZ+
entropy: Haven't you forgotten gluons there?
Originally posted by eNtRopY
Well, I don't think there is any type of matter that is composed of gluons... so no, I didn't forget gluons.
But what do I know?
Originally posted by eNtRopY String theorists tell us that quarks and leptons are fundamentally composed an identical entity, the string. The characteristic that gives rise to the difference between these two species is the mode of vibration of the said string.
Originally posted by jeff
Yang-mills gauge charges sit at the ends of open strings and are not determined by vibrational degrees of freedom.