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History

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Inside the atom

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Specific charge
The specific charge is the charge per unit mass for a
particle. It is calculated using the equation:

charge (C)
specific charge =
mass (kg)

The units are coulombs per kilogram (C kg-1)

It can be calculated for particles such as the proton, or for

ions, such as the Mg2+ ion.

For example, the proton:

specific charge = 1.60 10 -19

1.67 10-27

= 9.58 107 C kg-1

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Representing atoms
The number of protons in an atom is known as the atomic
number or proton number and is represented by the symbol
Z. This number defines the element to which the atom belongs.

A nucleon is a proton or a neutron, so the nucleon number

of an atom is the number of protons plus the number of
neutrons in the nucleus. It is represented by the symbol A.

An atom can be nucleon

represented by its number (A)
chemical symbol,
nucleon number and atomic
atomic number as number (Z)
shown.

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Isotopes
Isotopes are atoms of the same element that contain different
numbers of neutrons.

nucleon number
is different

atomic number
is the same
carbon-12 carbon-13

The different masses of the atoms means that the physical

properties of isotopes are slightly different.

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What makes a nucleus stable?

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Radioactive decay

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Atomic structure: testing

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Light as a particle
Light can be thought of as an electromagnetic wave. Like all
electromagnetic waves, light travels at a constant speed, c, in
a vacuum.
is wavelength
c
= c is the speed of light
f
f is the frequency

Light can also be thought of as a particle. The energy of the

electromagnetic wave is emitted in short bursts called photons.

photon energy, E = hf h is the Planck constant

hc h = 6.63 10-34 J s
=

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The Einstein equation
When using the mass and energy of particles, it is important to
specify rest mass and minimum energy. This is because the
mass of a particle increases as it reaches speeds close to the
speed of light, at which a particle would have infinite mass!
Einsteins famous equation
E = mc2 states the relationship
between the rest mass of a particle or
antiparticle and its minimum energy.
The energy of a particle or an
antiparticle is usually expressed in
electron volts (eV) or mega electron
volts (MeV).

1 eV = 1.6 10-19 J
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Introduction to antimatter
For every particle there is a corresponding antiparticle.
Antimatter is made up of antiparticles in the same way that
matter is made up of particles.

Antimatter was predicted

in 1928 by Paul Dirac. In
1932 Carl Anderson
discovered the first
antiparticle. It was called
the positron and is the
antiparticle of the electron.

One of the biggest problems for physics is understanding why

most of the observable universe seems to be made up of
matter rather than antimatter.

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The neutrino
Neutrinos and their
antiparticles, antineutrinos,
come in three different types,
two of which are: electron
neutrinos e and e and
muon neutrinos and .

They are created by

radioactive decay or nuclear
reactions in the Sun.

Neutrinos are elementary particles that travel close to light

speed. They have an extremely small (but non-zero) mass and
are uncharged.

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Particles and antiparticles

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Annihilation and pair production

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Four fundamental forces
A fundamental force is one that cannot be explained in terms
of the action of other forces.

There are four fundamental forces:

Force Felt by
strong force quarks
weak force any particle
electromagnetic force any charged particle
gravitation any particle with mass

It is the weak force that is responsible for turning a neutron into

a proton in decay and a proton into a neutron in + decay.

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Exchange particles and the W boson
Forces between particles are thought to be mediated by the
exchange of other particles between them. Some of these
particles are called virtual particles because they cannot be
detected directly.
The exchange particle for the electromagnetic force is the
virtual photon. The weak
force is mediated by a particle
called a W boson. W bosons:
have a non-zero rest mass
have a very short range
(no more than 0.001 fm)
are positively or negatively
charged (W+ or W).

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Feynman diagrams

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Interactions involving the weak force

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Particle classification

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Mesons and strangeness
Mesons come in many different varieties. Two of them are
pi mesons (pions) and K mesons (kaons).
Both can be positively or negatively-charged or neutral. The
charge is represented by a superscript number after the
symbol for the meson. The symbols for the pi and K mesons
are: +, , 0, K+, K, K0.
K mesons have some unusual properties that led to them
being called strange particles.
Strangeness is a property of particles, with strange particles
like K mesons being assigned a strangeness number of +1.
Pi mesons are not strange particles, so have a strangeness
number of 0.

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Particle interactions

Force weak electromagnetic strong

Particles
quarks

charged leptons

uncharged leptons

The weak force acts between all quarks (and therefore

between all hadrons) and leptons.
The strong force acts between all quarks (and therefore
all hadrons).
The electromagnetic force acts between all charged
particles.
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Decay into protons
Protons are the only stable baryons. The other baryons will
eventually decay into them.
For example, a neutron will decay into a proton according to:

n p + e +

or equivalently p
n p + +

This process is radioactive
decay, so the Feynman diagram is W
the same as for that process. The
decay proceeds by the exchange n
of a W boson.

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Can you classify particles?

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Feynman diagrams: testing

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Particles and interactions: testing

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Quarks
Quarks, like leptons, are fundamental particles. They are not
thought to be composed of any smaller particles.
Hadrons, such as protons and neutrons, are composed of
quarks.
Quarks and their antiparticles, antiquarks, come in several
types, called flavours:
flavour quark symbol antiquark symbol
up u u
down d d
strange s s
charm c c
top t t
bottom b b
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Properties of quarks
Quarks and antiquarks have the properties charge and
strangeness (shown below for three flavours of quarks).
quark antiquark
up down strange up down strange

charge +2 1 1 2 +1 +1
3 3 3 3 3 3
strangeness 0 0 1 0 0 +1

Adding up the charge or strangeness for the quarks composing

a hadron gives the charge or strangeness of that hadron.
For example a hadron composed of two up quarks and a down
quark would have charge 2/3 + 2/3 1/3 = +1 and
strangeness 0.

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Build a particle 1: mesons

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Build a particle 2: baryons

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Beta decay revisited
To make a neutron turn into a proton, as in decay, a down
quark must turn into an up quark. To make a proton turn into
a neutron, as in + decay, an up quark must turn into a
down quark.
The versions of the decay Feynman diagrams here show
these processes. They take place by the weak force.
decay + decay
+
u d

e e

W W+
d u
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Conservation rules

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Quark combinations: testing

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Can you apply conservation rules?

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Glossary

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Whats the keyword?

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Multiple-choice quiz

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