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The Standard Model of Elementary Particles

Fill in the chart of quarks, leptons, and bosons
Yes, there are particles that have no mass. Some of them move really fast.
Leptons start with e, m, t. The second row is easy once you have the first.
Quiz by sumguy
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Last updated: December 24, 2022
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First submittedMarch 3, 2017
Times taken1,012
Average score76.5%
Rating4.86
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three generations of matter (fermions)
 
interactions/force carriers (bosons)
 
I
 
II
 
III
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
quarks
 
 
 
 
gauge bosons
 
 
scalar bosons
mass
2.2 MeV/c²                                
 
1.28 GeV/c²                          
 
173.1 GeV/c²                 
 
0                                    
 
124.97 GeV/c²                  
charge
2/3
up
 
2/3
charm
 
2/3
top
 
0
gluon
 
0
Higgs boson
spin
1/2
 
1/2
 
1/2
 
1
 
0
 
 
 
4.7 MeV/c²                                
 
96 MeV/c²                             
 
4.18 GeV/c²                  
 
0                                    
 
 
 
 
-1/3
down
 
-1/3
strange
 
-1/3
bottom
 
0
photon
 
 
 
 
1/2
 
1/2
 
1/2
 
1
 
 
 
 
 
 
0.511 MeV/c²                            
 
105.66 MeV/c²                        
 
1.7768 GeV/c²                
 
91.19 GeV/c²                
 
 
 
 
-1
electron
 
-1
muon
 
-1
tau
 
0
Z boson
 
 
 
 
1/2
 
1/2
 
1/2
 
1
 
 
 
 
 
 
<1.0 eV/c²                                 
 
<0.17 MeV/c²                          
 
<18.2 MeV/c²                  
 
80.433 GeV/c²               
 
 
 
 
0
electron neutrino
 
0
muon neutrino
 
0
tau neutrino
 
±1
W boson
 
 
 
 
1/2
 
1/2
 
1/2
 
  1
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
leptons
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
sumguy
+2
Level 84
Jan 2, 2022
The universe is composed of two types of elementary fermions (quarks and leptons) and two types of elementary bosons (gauge and scalar).

Bosons have integer spin. Scalar bosons have a spin of 0, of which Higgs is the only one. Vector bosons have a spin of 1. The elementary vector bosons in the Standard Model are called gauge bosons, and they carry the strong, weak, and electromagnetic fundamental interactions: photons carry electromagnetic, gluons carry strong, and Z and W bosons carry the weak interaction.

Fermions have 1/2 spin. Quarks and leptons are fermions. Quarks are the fundamental constituents of matter, and use the strong interaction to combine into hadrons.

Hadrons with an even number of quarks are called mesons. All known mesons have two quarks -- a quark and an antiquark. Possible tetraquark and hexaquark discoveries are being investigated. Despite being composed of fermions, mesons are bosons because, having an even number of 1/2 spin particles, they have integer spin.

sumguy
+1
Level 84
Jan 2, 2022
Hadrons with an odd number of quarks are called baryons. Examples include the proton (2 up, 1 down) and neutron (2 down, 1 up). Quarks have a charge of either 2/3 (up-type) or -1/3 (down-type), so baryons combine like 4/3 - 1/3 = 1 or 2/3 - 2/3 = 0. All known baryons had three quarks until two pentaquarks -- containing an additional quark and antiquark -- were discovered in 2015. Having an odd number of quarks, baryons are fermions.

Leptons do not undergo strong interactions, so they don't combine to form composite particles. They have integer charge of -1 (charged) or 0 (neutral). Electrons are of the charged type. Electromagnetism holds electrons in orbit around the oppositely charged atomic nuclei.

Atoms are composed all of the elementary particle types. The nucleus is composed of particles composed of quarks, leptons orbit the nucleus, gauge bosons hold them together, and the scalar boson gives them mass. Atoms combine to form molecules, which form everything we consider matter.

sumguy
+1
Level 84
Jan 2, 2022
Quarks and leptons have corresponding antiquarks and antileptons, which have the same mass and opposite charge, so up-type antiquarks have a charge of -2/3, down-type antiquarks have a charge of 1/3, and charged-type antileptons have a charge of 1. Antiquarks combine into antihadrons. There are no antimesons because mesons are already composed of a quark and antiquark, but there are antibaryons. Examples include the antiproton (2 antiup, 1 antidown) and antineutron (2 antidown, 1 antiup) which, together with antielectrons (called positrons) constitute antimatter.
MyMindWentBlank
+2
Level 61
Jul 25, 2018
This is a fantastic quiz! Great work with the chart. Hopefully someday it could be featured.
NoAnswer
+1
Level 65
Mar 16, 2019
sad that this is too obscure :(( i'm so interested in elementary particles that i even made a chart some time ago and memorized them all (i swear i didn't use it on this quiz)
sumguy
+1
Level 84
Mar 16, 2019
I've been surprised at the average score on the quiz. It could be that people only take it if they already know the Model, or maybe it's not as obscure as I thought.
AerospaceAce4
+1
Level 15
May 11, 2020
You use the word "obscure" a lot. But why would someone know such an obscure piece of knowledge? Really, you get mad at people for including racing sausages because it's an "obscure piece of knowledge." yet you call your own quiz obscure. Hypocrite.
sumguy
+2
Level 84
May 11, 2020
I have no idea what you're talking about.

I acknowledge that most people are unlikely to know about the Standard Model. There's no rule against making a quiz about obscure knowledge. If you're going for mainstream knowledge, don't include things that are obscure. If you're going for obscure knowledge, don't include things that are mainstream. In other words, an easy quiz shouldn't have one super hard question in it, and a super hard quiz shouldn't have one super easy question in it. Without context, I can only assume that I pointed out an "obscure" question in an otherwise mainstream quiz, and this somehow makes me a hypocrite when I create an entire quiz that only contains obscure knowledge. Whatever I wrote, I'm pretty sure that I wan't mad about it. Written criticism can look like anger, but it's tricky to read emotion in the written word. (That's why they created emojis.) Whatever I wrote probably isn't worth getting upset about. Accept or reject the criticism and move on.

BMDragon
+1
Level 82
Jun 19, 2020
Can you accept "e-neutrino" "m-neutrino" "t-neutrino" for the corresponding neutrino pairs?
sumguy
+1
Level 84
Jun 19, 2020
Sure.
plattitude
+3
Level 92
Oct 20, 2020
Fun quiz, nominated. But I would suggest these revisions.
sumguy
+2
Level 84
Oct 20, 2020
Haha! The funny thing is that I agree with renaming strange and charm to left and right for consistency with the other names, and I prefer strange and charm bosons to Z and W. I'm also totally on board with losing the Greek letters in favor of N for neutrino and M for muon... except that "Ne" would look like neon. "M" and "Me" aren't used by any elements. As for the other lepton changes, I always thought that it was pretty clean that you only have to remember three leptons, and then add "neutrino" to the name. Arguably easier than remember six different quark names!
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