What are

the
Elementary
Constituent
s of Matter?

What are the

forces that
control their
behaviour at the
most basic level?

History of Constituents of
Matter

AD

In Nuclear Reactions momentum and massenergy is conserved for a closed system the
total momentum and energy of the particles
present after the reaction is equal to the total
momentum and energy of the particles before the
reaction

In the case where an alpha particle is released

from an unstable nucleus the momentum of the
alpha particle and the new nucleus is the same as
the momentum of the original unstable nucleus

Wolfgang Pauli

1
1
0 __ 0
n 0 p1 e 1 0

Large variations in the emission velocities of the

particle seemed to indicate that both energy and
momentum were not conserved.
This led to the proposal by Wolfgang Pauli of another
particle, the neutrino, being emitted in decay to carry
away the missing mass and momentum.
The neutrino (little neutral one) was discovered in 1956.

1
1
0 __ 0
n 0 p1 e 1 0
1.008665 u

1.007825 u

0.0005486 u

1u=

1.660 10 27 kg

1J=

1.6 10 19

eV

Mass difference

1.008665 (1.007825 0.0005486)

0.0002914

0.0002914 1.660 10 27

4.83724 10

31

kg

kg

E mc

(4.83724 10 31 )(3.0 108 ) 2J

4.353516 10 14 J

4.353516 10 14
1.602 10

19

eV
271755

0.272 MeV

It has been found by experiment that the emitted beta particle

has less energy than 0.272 MeV
Neutrino accounts for the missing energy

Cockroft and Walton

First artificial splitting of
nucleus
First transmutation using
artificially accelerated
particles
First experimental verification
of E = mc2
Irish Nobel Prize

E.T.S. Walton 1951

John Cockcroft

Ernest Walton

Experimental verification of
1
1H

E = mc2

7
4
4
3 Li 2 He 2 He

1 MeV
Proton + Lithium

Energy

17.3 MeV
Two alpha particles + Energy

 Ancient Greeks:
Earth, Air, Fire,
Water
By 1900, nearly 100
elements
By 1936, back to three
particles: proton, neutron,
electron

CERN LEP APPLET

http://www.hep.ucl.ac.uk/masterclass/Acc_sim2/simulator.html

The Four Fundamental Forces

E
c

Particle
zoo

Thomson (1897): Discovers electron

1x10 10 m

1x10 15 m

0.7 x10 15 m

0.7 x10 18 m

60
60
0
0_
27 Co 28 Ni 1 e 0

Q = -1e almost all trapped in atoms

Q= 0 all freely moving through universe

Just as the equation x2=4 can have two

possible solutions (x=2 OR x=-2), so
Dirac's equation could have two solutions,
one for an electron with positive energy,
and one for an electron with negative
energy.
Dirac interpreted this to mean that for
every particle that exists there is a
corresponding
antiparticle,
exactly
matching the particle but with opposite
charge. For the electron, for instance,
there should be an "antielectron" called
the positron identical in every way but
with a positive electric charge.

e e

1928 Dirac predicted existence of antimatter

1932 antielectrons (positrons) found in
conversion of energy into matter
1995 antihydrogen consisting of antiprotons and
positrons produced at CERN
In principle an antiworld can be built from
antimatter
Produced only in accelerators and
in cosmic rays

rays e e

e e 2hf

2
3

1
3

Q 1

Q0

James Joyce

Murray Gell-Mann

1
3
1

3
1

3
2

3
2

2
3

1
3

2
2
1

1
3
3
3
2 1 1
0
3 3 3

http://lectureonline.cl.msu.edu/~mmp/applist/q/q.htm