Atoms are made of smaller components – neutrons, protons, and electrons. And whereas electrons are fundamental particles too, neutrons and protons are made up of other fundamental particles – quarks.
Particles and their Properties
| Types | Generations | Antiparticle | Colors | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quarks | 2,3 | Pair | 3 | 36 |
| Leptons | 2,3 | Pair | None | 12 |
| Gluons | 1,1 | Own | 8 | 8 |
| W | 1,1 | Pair | None | 2 |
| Z | 1,1 | Own | None | 1 |
| Photon | 1,1 | Own | None | 1 |
| Higgs | 1,1 | Own | None | 1 |
| Total: | 61 |
Our current state of understanding is called the Standard Model.
There are two kinds of fundamental particles:
fermions make up matter
bosons carry forces.
Physicists can measure the mass of those particles. But until now, they did not know where the mass was actually coming from or why particles have the masses they do.
When a particle passes through the Higgs field, it interacts with it and gets mass. The more it interacts with it, the more mass it has.