The Basics of Fundamental Particles and Forces and Their Interactions

Carter Hedinger

English 10
Mrs. Graves
June 9, 2016

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What I Already Knew / What I Wanted to Know

From the beginning of time, humans have always sought to find answers to our
mysterious, yet beautiful, universe. Science is what we created to explain to ourselves how we
are alive and how the sun sets. In recent years, our understanding of the universe has increased
greatly from the tiniest particles to the largest galaxies. Tiny particles are essential to everything
in the universe, because they make up everything. If everything in the entire universe is made up
of very small particles, shouldnt we try to understand how they work and why they do what they
do?
I already knew that the atom is made of three essential particles: the proton, the neutron,
and the electron. I also knew that the neutron and the proton are much bigger than the electron
and that there are particles even smaller than the proton and the electron, but I didnt know much
about them.
I wanted to know more about the small particles that make up everything. What are the
smallest particles in the universe? What are their properties and how do they affect the
properties of the things they make up? How do these particles interact with each other? How
many different types of particles are there?
After asking myself many questions about these very tiny particles, I asked the question,
What are the smallest particles in the universe and what are their properties? I was then
determined to find the answer.

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Story of My Search
The entirety of my search took about two weeks. While in my high school library, I
searched the internet for reliable scientific research journals, but there were none that specifically
explained my particular question. After a quick Google search, I decided to look at Wikipedia to
get a simple answer to my question. I found that the smallest particles known to man are called
elementary particles, or fundamental particles, and they can be divided into three main
categories: quarks, leptons, and bosons.
Now that I knew scientists called the tiniest particles the fundamental particles, I searched
it on Google and found a very informative webpage with research findings by the University of
Oregon. It taught the basics and specifics of what I was searching for. I took almost two pages
front and back full of notes about fundamental particles.
My new knowledge gave me some answers, but led me to new questions. From the
webpage by the University of Oregon I learned that there are three generations of matter, and that
each type of the fundamental particles is split into these three generations. Because the first
generation of matter contains all visible matter, I wanted to know what makes up generations two
and three. A quick Google search led me to a short explanation by Boston University.
I had some other questions about specific interactions between two quarks and two
leptons which led me to a theoretical particle physics professor, Dr. Jozef Dudek, at Old
Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. After looking over his profile on the college website,
I found that he had helped many students before with research projects and he had attended the
University of Oxford, which really stood out to me4. I decided that I wanted to interview him, so
I composed an e-mail to send to him explaining what I was doing and that I wanted to interview

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him. I was extremely excited when he responded just 30 minutes after I had sent the initial email. After we figured out a good time in his schedule to have an over-the-phone interview, I
wrote a list of all the questions I wanted to ask him. My list was incredibly long, so I shortened
it to about 6 questions. During the interview, I asked him my questions, and he answered all of
them in great detail. After the interview was over, I had a better understanding of theoretical
particle physics and its history. Not only did he answer my questions, but he answered some of
them before I even asked them.
However, even after the interview, I found that I had a few questions, so I continued my
research. While searching, I found a video made by Neil deGrasse Tyson, which had some brief
parts that answered the rest of my questions. Now that I had all of this information, I knew I
could answer all of the questions I had before starting and all of questions I came up with while
researching.
The Search Results
As a result of my research I have found that the tiniest particles in the universe are called
fundamental particles and there are four fundamental forces in which these particles interact.
The webpage by the University of Oregon explained the basic properties of every fundamental
particle. From there, I learned that quarks are the particles that make baryons (particles made of
three quarks) and mesons (particles made of two quarks). For example, a proton is made of two
up quarks and one down quark and a neutron is made of two down quarks and one up quark.
There are six different quarks: the up and down quarks are in the first generation of matter, the
charm and strange quarks are in the second generation, and the top and bottom quarks are in the
third generation. The up, top, and charm quarks all have a +2/3 charge while the down, strange,
and bottom quarks all have a -1/3 charge. They are also bonded by the strong force, which is one

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of the four fundamental forces of the universe. The others are gravity, the electromagnetic force,
and the weak force. Like all of matter, all quarks have an antiparticle. The quarks antiparticle is
the antiquark. The antiquark of a given quarks has the equal and opposite property of the quark.
For example, the up quarks has a +2/3 charge, but the up antiquark has a charge of -2/3.2
The University of Oregons article also taught me about leptons. There are 6 different
leptons: the electron and electron neutrino are part of the first generation of matter, the muon and
the muon neutrino are part of the second generation, and the tau and the tau neutrino are part of
the third generation. The electron has a -1 charge and has a very low mass, while the electron
neutrino is neutral and has a low mass as well. In fact, the electron is so light, that it is the
lightest known particle with mass. Leptons interact through the weak force, though electrons do
interact with the electromagnetic force as well. Other than controlling the interactions of leptons,
the weak force also controls the radioactive decay of an atom. Along with quarks, leptons have
antiparticles. The name for the antiparticle of the electron is called the positron and has a +1
charge. When an electron and a positron hit each other, all of their mass convert to energy
through E=mc. Actually, this happens when any type of matter contacts their anti-matter
counterpart.
Bosons were not described in great detail in the article from the University of Oregon, but
it still gave some information on them. There are four different bosons for the four different
forces in the universe, because bosons are the force carriers. The boson for the electromagnetic
force is the photon, which is completely massless and moves at the speed of light. The boson for
the strong force is the gluon, which has a high mass and causes color charge in quarks. Along
with electromagnetic charge, quarks have color charge, which comes in 3 colors: red, green, and
blue. The quarks are not actually colored; the colors are just a representation of the three2

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charges of the strong force. If you have three quarks, and each one has a different color charge,
the net charge of that baryon is white. Also, antiquarks will have an anti-color charge, meaning
an up antiquarks would have a color charge of anti-red. Having two quarks, one with red and the
other with anti-red, the net color charge is also white. The bosons for the weak force are W+, W-,
and Zo. These bosons are so massive that they have 70 times the mass of a proton. The final
boson is theoretical and has no evidence of its existence as of now. It is the graviton, which
carries the force of gravity. Theoretical particle physicists predict that the graviton is massless
and moves at the speed of light like the photon2.
Boston Universitys short diagram showed me that the first generation of matter contains
all visible matter in the universe as well as decay products of high mass particles. The second
generation consists of cosmic rays and unstable particles. The third generation contains other
unstable particles. Each generation of matter has heavier particles than the previous generation,
which is why the electron is the lightest particle, not the muon or tau3.
Dr. Jozef Dudek answered my questions about the strong force, the weak force, and other
topics. First, he explained to me the strong force. He said that the nucleus of an atom should not
form because there are a bunch of protons, all with a +1 charge, clumped together. They should
all push away from each other. Neutrons do help, but not enough. Therefore, there must be a
force that is stronger than the electromagnetic force and can keep the nucleus together. Because
this force has to be stronger than the electromagnetic force, scientists named it the strong force.
To prove that this existed, scientists looked at something called quantum electrodynamics
(QED) which is an equation that explains the electromagnetic force. They took the same
equation, but used variables for strong force and created quantum chromodynamics (QCD). I
then asked him about strong force in relation to other forces. He said the strong force works very

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differently than the electromagnetic force. For example, if you take two magnets and pull one
farther away from the other, they have less and less of an attraction at longer and longer
distances. However, the strong force actually gets stronger as the distance gets longer and
longer. It works a lot like a rubber band, the more you pull two sides apart, the more energy you
have to input to keep pulling the sides further and further apart. With enough distance, the
energy can become so great that two new quarks will form, from E=mc, and attract to either
quark you tried to pull apart. This is why there are no lone quarks in the universe, each quark
has at least one other quark bonded to it through the strong force. He also explained the weak
force and its origin. Through QED, scientists attempted to create another version for the weak
force. The only problem was that photons were massless while the W and Z bosons were
incredibly massive. Theoretical Particle Physicists believe that the electromagnetic force and the
weak force were once unified in the electroweak force and that W and Z bosons had no mass.
When the two forces split, the Higgs boson, a particle discovered using the Large Hadron
Collider in 2012, gave the W and Z bosons mass to slow them down and create the weak force6.
The video of Neil deGrasse Tyson taught me a little more background information on the
Higgs boson. It is believed that all four forces were once combined into one single force when
the universe was young, small and extremely hot. As it expanded, it also cooled which caused
the first split of the forces. Gravity became its own force shortly before the strong force. Then
there was more and more expansion and cooling, when the electroweak force split into the
electromagnetic force and the weak force. This means that the Higgs boson might have acted
upon the strong force as well, because it has mass and was once unified with the other forces1.
After all of my research, I concluded that fundamental particles are the smallest particles
in the universe and there are many of them, each with different properties than the others. There

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are three generations of matter which further classifies quarks and leptons3. All of the
fundamental forces are exhibited using the bosons to carry each force2. The strong force is very
different than the other forces in that it has a rubber band effect6. In the beginning of the
universe, all of the forces were combined into one force which eventually split off into all the
other forces because the universe expanded and cooled1.
My Growth As A Researcher
I learned a lot more than I thought I would throughout this project. I didnt know that it
would be so hard to find a source that explained my question to me. Many of the scientific
journals I looked at were too specific and dealt with only a small portion of my research.
Another thing I learned was that finding someone to interview is even more difficult than finding
sources of information. I think my interview went very well, but I knew I was too nervous
because I had trouble speaking. Now I know I shouldnt be too nervous and should speak better
and clearer next time I talk to a professional about their work. Even though the interview was
stressful, I enjoyed it and want to do another one for another research project. In the beginning
of the project, I thought that this was going to be too much work for me to handle, but the
workload was fine and I got through all of it fairly easily and with enjoyment. I picked a topic
that I have a true passion for, which is important for a long research paper like this. I have also
learned that websites made by colleges are great sources of basic and in-depth information.

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Cited References
1

A Brief History of Everything, feat. Neil deGrasse Tyson. YouTube. 2015 Jul 20 [accessed 2016
May 10]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kytj8tboz8
2

elementary particles. elementary particles. [accessed 2016 Apr 20].

http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast123/lectures/lec07.html
3

Generations. Generations. [accessed 2016 Apr 20]. http://physics.bu.edu/cc104/generation.html

Jozef Dudek. Old Dominion University. [accessed 2016 May 1].

http://ww2.odu.edu/~jdudek/bio/index.html
5

Quarks. Quarks. [accessed 2016 Apr 22]. http://hyperphysics.phyastr.gsu.edu/hbase/particles/quark.html

6

Theoretical Particle Physics [Telephone interview]. (2016, May 05).