Five of the six types of quarks, one type of lepton, and all three neutrinos were discovered at what are now DOE national laboratories. DOE Office of Science: Contributions to the Standard Model of Particle PhysicsĭOE has a long history of supporting research into fundamental particles. Instead, much of the universe consists of dark matter and dark energy that do not fit into the Standard Model. Also, physicists understand that about 95 percent of the universe is not made of ordinary matter as we know it. However, we do not yet know whether the Higgs boson also gives mass to neutrinos – ghostly particles that interact very rarely with other matter in the universe. For example, the Higgs boson gives mass to quarks, charged leptons (like electrons), and the W and Z bosons. The fourth fundamental force is gravity, which is not adequately explained by the Standard Model.ĭespite its success at explaining the universe, the Standard Model does have limits. The weak force, carried by W and Z bosons, causes nuclear reactions that have powered our Sun and other stars for billions of years. The strong force, which is carried by gluons, binds together atomic nuclei to make them stable. Electromagnetism is carried by photons and involves the interaction of electric fields and magnetic fields.
The Standard Model explains three of the four fundamental forces that govern the universe: electromagnetism, the strong force, and the weak force.
It also explains how force carrying particles, which belong to a broader group of bosons, influence the quarks and leptons. It explains how particles called quarks(which make up protons and neutrons) and leptons (which include electrons) make up all known matter.
The Standard Model of Particle Physics is scientists’ current best theory to describe the most basic building blocks of the universe.
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