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Quark

A quark is an elementary particle of matter with spin ½.

 

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Explanation

The properties of quarks have been given names as colours, flavors, strangeness and you can perform calculations with it. There are different types of quarks

	Ⅰ		Ⅱ		Ⅲ
	u up		c charm		t top
	d down		s strange		b bottum

The corresponding antiparticles are

	Ⅰ		Ⅱ		Ⅲ
	u̅ antiup		c̅ anticharm		t̅ antitop
	d̅ antidown		s̅ antistrange		b̅ antibottum

A quark can not exist in isolated state. An atomic nucleus exists of protons and neutrons in which quarks are trapped. In composite particles, the quarks are held together by gluons.

 

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History The existence of quarks was predicted in 1964 by the American physicist Murray Gell-Mann. The American physicist James Bjorken showed in 1968 that quarks are point-like structures.

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