Subatomic particles.

[Kermit]

All the other subatomic particles that aren't protons, neutrons, or electrons -- like hadrons or bosons -- do they have a purpose? As far as I know most are short lived and decay into other more stable particles.

[Phospholipid]

I'm not the most knowledge about this sort of stuff. But as far as I know, electrons and such are made up of hardons, bosons, leptons, mesons etc. And somehow, quarks fit into the picture.

[Kyrisch]

Quarks make up protons, electrons and neutrons. Mesons are what stick the quarks together.

[DQW]

All the other subatomic particles that aren't protons, neutrons, or electrons -- like hadrons or bosons -- do they have a purpose? As far as I know most are short lived and decay into other more stable particles.

There a lot more confusion behind this question than just what is asked in the question itself. I recommend that you first understand the classification. Hadrons are all particles that interact through the strong force. This includes mesons like the pion (which are made up of pairs of quarks) and baryons (made up of 3 quarks) like the proton and neutron. Mesons, possessing integer spin values are also classified as bosons, while baryons are fermions. Particles that do not interact through the strong force are leptons, like the electron and its neutrino.

 

What is the role played by the the short lived particles like the (who ordered that) muon ? I can't answer that question. I'd wait for one of the high-energy folks to show up.

[ydoaPs]

I'm not the most knowledge about this sort of stuff. But as far as I know, electrons and such are made up of hardons, bosons, leptons, mesons etc. And somehow, quarks fit into the picture.

Quarks make up protons, electrons and neutrons. Mesons are what stick the quarks together.

wow

 

electrons are leptons and they are fundamental. baryons(protons, neutrons) are made of three quarks.

[DQW]

Quarks make up protons, electrons and neutrons. Mesons are what stick the quarks together.

Not correct.

 

Neutrons and protons are made of quarks, which are held together by gluons (not mesons - mesons themselves are made of quarks).

 

Electrons are fundamental particles. They are not made up of quarks.

[DQW]

The big picture

[Kyrisch]

I'm sorry for the false info, I studied that too long ago to fish it back up without jumbling a few things ;-). Since nobody was answering, I thought I would just say what I thought I remembered. Thanks for clearing it up, DQW, I learned something today.

[DQW]

I'm sorry for the false info, I studied that too long ago to fish it back up without jumbling a few things ;-). Since nobody was answering, I thought I would just say what I thought I remembered. Thanks for clearing it up, DQW, I learned something today.

It's not a big deal. Everyone slips up once in a while - I've done it more times than I'd care to remember !

 

Besides, the reason you thought mesons held quarks together is probably from some vague memory of Yukawa's prediction of the pion as the mediator of the strong force.

[Severian]

To answer the original question, most of these extra particles have no impact on our everyday lives, but they still need to be present in oder to have a consistant theory. Many are just different bound states of the same quarks used to build protons and neutrons, so if they weren't there we would have problems with the theory.

 

It is more interesting to ask if we need the ones which are built from different quarks form the ones that build protons and neutrons. The quarks and neutrons are made up of 'up' and 'down' type quarks, which are in the same 'family' as the electron and its neutrino (which are leptons).

 

But there are two additional families of quarks and leptons with exactly the same properties, only heavier. These are:

 

Family 2: charm and strange quarks; muon and muon-neutrino

Family 3: top and bottom quark; tau and tau-neutrino

 

We don't yet know why there are 3 families, but there are many subtleties in particle physics which would be absent with only one family. For example CP-violation in its know form needs multiple families. Also, it looks like it is the large top quark mass which triggers electroweak symmetry breaking.

 

So without the other 2 families, things would not look the same, and the hadrons made out of these families are necessarily there once the quarks are there.

[Kermit]

Ah, okay. Thanks.