We explain what subatomic particles are and the studies on them. Also, the types of particles that exist.
What are subatomic particles?
Subatomic particles are understood to be the structures of matter are smaller than the atom and that, therefore, are part of it and determine its properties. These particles can be of two types: compound (divisible) or elemental (indivisible).
Throughout history, humans have studied matter and proposed various theories and more or less scientific approaches to the smallest particles that exist, the ones that make up everything.
The different atomic models proposed since ancient times found what seems to be their definitive form in contemporary times, thanks to the development of quantum theory, electrochemistry and nuclear physics, among other disciplines.
Thus, it is known today that the atom, the smallest unit in which matter is found and which has the properties of a chemical element, It is composed mostly of vacuum with a nucleus of particles in which the highest percentage of its mass is concentrated, and other particles (electrons) rotating around it.
The experimental study of subatomic particles is arduous, since many of them are unstable and they cannot be observed except in particle accelerators. However, the most stable ones are well known, such as electrons, protons and neutrons.
Types of subatomic particles
Subatomic particles are classified according to various criteria. For example, The most well-known and stable particles are three: electrons, protons and neutrons different from each other due to their electric charge (negative, positive and neutral respectively) and their mass, or due to the fact that electrons are elementary particles (indivisible) and the last two are composite. In addition, electrons orbit the nucleus, while protons and neutrons make it up.
On the other hand, protons and neutrons, being composite particles, can be subdivided into other particles called quarks, linked together by another type of particle called gluons. Both quarks and gluons are indivisible particles, that is, elementary. There are six types of quarks: up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom.
Likewise, there are photons, which are the subatomic particles responsible for electromagnetic interaction; and also neutrinos and gauge bosons, responsible for the weak nuclear forces. Finally, there is the Higgs boson, a particle that was discovered in 2012 and that would be responsible for all other elementary particles (everything that makes up the universe) having mass.
The behavior of elementary particles is a challenge for science. Although quantum mechanics and the Standard Model of Elementary Particles are theoretical frameworks that describe this subatomic world in an astonishingly successful way, there is still a lack of a theory that can explain the entire behavior of the universe, that can unite quantum mechanics with Einstein's relativity. Today there are some of these theories, like String Theory, but its validity is not yet confirmed experimentally.
