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Up quark

Type of quark


Type of quark

FieldValue
nameUp quark
compositionelementary particle
statisticsfermionic
groupquark
generationfirst
interactionstrong, weak, electromagnetic, gravity
antiparticleup antiquark ()
theorizedMurray Gell-Mann (1964)George Zweig (1964)
discoveredSLAC (1968)
symbol
mass
authorM. Tanabashi et al. (Particle Data Group)
titleReview of Particle Physics
year2018
doi10.1103/PhysRevD.98.030001
volume98
issue3
pages1–708
journalPhysical Review D
pmid10020536
urlhttp://pdglive.lbl.gov/DataBlock.action?node=Q123UM
doi-accessfree
bibcode2018PhRvD..98c0001T
hdl10044/1/68623
hdl-accessfree
decay_particlestable or down quark + positron + electron neutrino
electric_charge+ *e*
color_chargeyes
spin*ħ*
weak_isospinLH: +, RH: 0
weak_hyperchargeLH: +, RH: +

|doi-access=free |hdl-access=free

The up quark or u quark (symbol: u) is the lightest of all quarks, a type of elementary particle, and a significant constituent of matter. It, along with the down quark, forms the neutrons (one up quark, two down quarks) and protons (two up quarks, one down quark) of atomic nuclei. It is part of the first generation of matter, has an electric charge of + e and a bare mass of . Like all quarks, the up quark is an elementary fermion with spin , and experiences all four fundamental interactions: gravitation, electromagnetism, weak interactions, and strong interactions. The antiparticle of the up quark is the up antiquark (sometimes called antiup quark or simply antiup), which differs from it only in that some of its properties, such as charge have equal magnitude but opposite sign.

Its existence (along with that of the down and strange quarks) was postulated in 1964 by Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig to explain the Eightfold Way classification scheme of hadrons. The up quark was first observed by experiments at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in 1968.

History

In the beginnings of particle physics (first half of the 20th century), hadrons such as protons, neutrons and pions were thought to be elementary particles. However, as new hadrons were discovered, the 'particle zoo' grew from a few particles in the early 1930s and 1940s to several dozens of them in the 1950s. The relationships between each of them were unclear until 1961, when Murray Gell-Mann

This classification scheme organized the hadrons into isospin multiplets, but the physical basis behind it was still unclear. In 1964, Gell-Mann |access-date=2008-09-23 |display-authors=8 |doi-access=free |display-authors=etal |access-date = 2008-09-29 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081225093044/http://www.hueuni.edu.vn/hueuni/en/news_detail.php?NewsID=1606&PHPSESSID=909807ffc5b9c0288cc8d137ff063c72 |archive-date = 2008-12-25

At first people were reluctant to describe the three bodies as quarks, instead preferring Richard Feynman's parton description, |display-authors=etal |url-access=registration

Mass

Despite being extremely common, the bare mass of the up quark is not well determined, but probably lies between 1.8 and . |access-date=2013-02-21 |display-authors=etal

When found in mesons (particles made of one quark and one antiquark) or baryons (particles made of three quarks), the 'effective mass' (or 'dressed' mass) of quarks becomes greater because of the binding energy caused by the gluon field between each quark (see Mass–energy equivalence). The bare mass of up quarks is so light, it cannot be straightforwardly calculated because relativistic effects have to be taken into account.

References

References

  1. Cho, Adrian. (April 2010). "Mass of the Common Quark Finally Nailed Down". Science Magazine.
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