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The electron, on the other hand, is thought to be stable on theoretical grounds: the electron is the least massive particle with non-zero electric charge, so its decay would violate charge conservation. [97] The experimental lower bound for the electron's mean lifetime is 6.6 × 10 28 years, at a 90% confidence level. [9] [98] [99]
The W bosons are known for their mediation in nuclear decay: The W − converts a neutron into a proton then decays into an electron and electron-antineutrino pair. The Z 0 does not convert particle flavor or charges, but rather changes momentum; it is the only mechanism for elastically scattering neutrinos. The weak gauge bosons were ...
Since then, the particle has been shown to behave, interact, and decay in many of the ways predicted for Higgs particles by the Standard Model, as well as having even parity and zero spin, two fundamental attributes of a Higgs boson. This also means it is the first elementary scalar particle discovered in nature.
In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] They vary greatly in size or quantity, from subatomic particles like the electron , to microscopic particles like atoms and molecules ...
Even among particle physicists, the exact definition of a particle has diverse descriptions. These professional attempts at the definition of a particle include: [6] A particle is a collapsed wave function; A particle is a quantum excitation of a field; A particle is an irreducible representation of the Poincaré group; A particle is an ...
Later, the name electron was assigned to the particle and the unit of charge e lost its name. However, the unit of energy electronvolt (eV) is a remnant of the fact that the elementary charge was once called electron.
In particle physics, a lepton is an elementary particle of half-integer spin (spin 1 / 2 ) that does not undergo strong interactions. [1] Two main classes of leptons exist: charged leptons (also known as the electron-like leptons or muons), including the electron, muon, and tauon, and neutral leptons, better known as neutrinos.
Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation.The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the scale of protons and neutrons, while the study of combination of protons and neutrons is called nuclear physics.