01
Matter Particles
The Standard Model organizes matter into quarks and leptons. Quarks participate in the strong interaction; leptons include charged leptons and neutrinos.
- Six quark flavors: up, down, charm, strange, top, bottom.
- Three charged leptons: electron, muon, tau.
- Three known neutrino flavors associated with those charged leptons.
02
Fundamental Interactions
- Electromagnetic interaction.
- Weak interaction.
- Strong interaction.
03
Higgs Mechanism
The Higgs field is part of the electroweak theory. Its nonzero vacuum expectation value contributes to the masses of W and Z bosons and, through Yukawa interactions, to fermion masses.
04
Experimental Physics
Particle physics relies on accelerators, detectors, precision measurements, and statistical inference. Experiments search for predicted phenomena while also testing discrepancies that may indicate physics beyond established models.