Shri Agrasen Kanya

Autonomous
P.G. College, Varanasi

A Project on: Elementary particles

Subject:- Physics
Session: 2015-16
Bachelor of Science
In
Physics

External Supervisor

Submitted by
Priyanka Verma
Smriti Singh
B. Sc. (Final Year)

Internal Supervisor
Dr. Shubha R. Saxena (HOD)
Dr. Sunil Mishra
Shri A. K. A. P. G. College
Varanasi

Sri Agrasen Kanya Autonomous P.G. College

Varanasi 221001

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the Project Work

entitled Elementary Particles in Atom.
A Project report has been undertaken in
much supervision and guidance, the result
presented in the project report is based on
her own independent effort that had been
checked and verify by me. I am fully
satisfied with the work which is being
presented by Smriti Singh & Priyanka
Verma.

Forwarded by
Dr. Kumkum Malviya
(HOD)
Principal
Sri A.K.P.G. College
Bulanala, Varanasi

Supervised by
Dr. Shubha R. Saxena
Dr. Sunil Mishra
Department Of Physics
Sri A.K.P.G. College
Bulanala, Varanasi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am thankful to our Principal Dr.

Kumkum Malviya, I am deeply indebted
by our Mam Dr. Shubha R Saxena Head,
of Department of Physics, Shri A. K. A.
P.G. College, Varanasi for inspiring and
providing important books S. N. Ghosal,
S.Chand & David Griffith for this work.
I am thankful to respected teacher Dr.
Sunil Mishra Department of Physics, Shri
A. K. A. P.G. P.G. College, and Varanasi
for helping me lots by; giving suggestion
and guidance.
I am heartily thankful to all our teachers
of the department whose great blessing
and love made it possible for me to go
and succeeded in my work.
Priyanka Verma& Smriti
Singh
B.Sc. (Physics)
Final year

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
CHARACTERISTICS
PARTICLES AND
ANTIPARTICLES
CLASSIFICATION
CONSERVATION LAWS

INTRODUCTION

Matter in this universe is supposed to be

made of microscopic elementary
constituents these particles are known as
elementary particles. A few of them, such
as Proton, Electron, are stable but most
of them decay soon after their production

Elementary or
fundamental particles
An elementary particle is
one which is not a composite
of others, i.e., whose internal
structure cannot be describe
as a combination of other
particles.
In early 30s people knew
about only four elementary
particles-the electron, the
proton, the neutron and the
photon. This number had
grown to 14 by 1947 and to
32 by 1957.

Characteristic properties
of elementary particles

Mass:-An elementary particles

has always the same rest mass.
The magnitude of the rest mass
serves as the principal label to
identify the particle uniquely.

Charge :-All elementary

particles have charge +e, -e or

zero. This charge or conserved
in any collision process. It may
be seen from the following
neutron-proton(n-p) collision:
n + p -> p + p +
n + p -> n + n +
n + p -> n + p + k + k

Life time

:-All elementary

particles, except photon,

electron, proton and neutrinos,
are unstable and decay into
other elementary particles of
smaller mass.

Spin :-

the particles of half

integral, i.e., spins,, etc. obeying
Fermi-Dirac statistics, are called
Fermions. The particles of spins
are electrons, positrons, protons,
neutrons, neutrinos,
antineutrinos, -mesons and many
hyperons. Particles having zero
or integral spins, i.e., 0, 1, 2 etc.
are bosons because they obey
Bose-Einstein statistic.

Interactions
Gravitational interactions
It is the weakest interaction which is
attractive and universal.

Weak interactions
These interaction cause the light particles to
interact with one another and with heavier
particles.

Electromagnetic interactions
It is similar to the gravitational interactions
but depends upon the nature of charges on
the particles.

Strong interactions
It is the dominant interaction in high-energy
particles physics. These are also called
nuclear interaction.
The relative magnitudes of gravitational,
weak, electromagnetic and strong
interactions are in the ratio:
10-39: 10-13: 10-3: 1

PARTICLES AND
ANTI-PARTICLES
Dirac predicted theoretically the existence of
antiparticles for the electron. He actually
postulated that every particle has antiparticles.
The antiparticles of a given particles has exactly
the same mass, spin, and life time (if unstable)
but an opposite charge (if any).

Electron and positron

The first antiparticles known was positron which
was discovered by Anderson in 1932. It is a
positively charged electron, i.e., it has the same
mass and the same spin as an electron but
opposite charge. When an electron and a positron
come in contact with each other.
e+ + e - = 2

Proton and antiproton

The antiparticles of proton are called the
antiproton. It has the same mass as a proton, but
an opposite charge and the same spin as a proton
but an opposite magnetic moment. Thus it is a
negative proton and is denoted by p- . It was
established in1955 by Segre, Chamberlain and
their collaborators.

Neutron and
antineutron
It is much harder to detect an antineutron
because it has no charge. Both neutron
and antineutron have zero charge and the
same mass but antineutron is supposed to
have an internal charge distribution to
that of neutron.

Neutrino and
antineutrino
The antiparticles of neutrino v are

antineutrino. The neutrino spins counter

clockwise when viewed from behind from
behind, while antineutrino spins clockwise.

Classification of
elementary particles
On the basis of the
characteristic properties such
as mass, spin, intrinsic angular
momentum and the nature of
reactions they can undergo,
the elementary particles are
usually classified into following
groups.

Photons
Photon is a quantum of electromagnetic radiation. It is
a stable particle with zero charge and zero rest mass.
It is a bosom because its spin is unity. It has energy
given by Plancks equation E=hv where v is the
frequency of radiation. It has an equivalent mass given
by Einstein equation E=mc2. therefore,

Leptons
These are light weight elementary particles. They have
a spin equal to and are, therefore, fermions. They
are characterized by their Spinmomentum
.The leptons are
stable except muons. They interact weakly with other
particles and occur as particles and antiparticles.
The members of lepton class are electron and positron
(e- , e+), muons (- , +), electron-neutrinos (ve, e) and
muon-neutrinos (v, ).

Electron and positron

Electron is stable atomic particles of mass 9.1x10 -31 kg
and negative charge of 1.6x10-19 coulomb. It has spin
quantum number s= and so its angular momentum has
magnitude . Therefore, it is a fermion.
Positron is the antiparticle of electron. It is identical
with electron in all respects except that it is positively
charged. When electron and positron come in contact,
they annihilate each other producing two -photons:
e+ + e - = +

Muons (or -Mesons)

Mu-mesons, called muons, were discovered by Anderson in
1936. -mesons exist as both negative and positive and are
denoted by + and - respectively. They are created as meson decay in cosmic radiations.
+ and - mesons have the same spin of
and resemble with
positron and electron respectively in all respects except the
following:
Muons are heavier than electron or positron. They have the
same rest mass of 207 me is the mass of electron.
Both + and - mesons are unstable ( unlike electron and
positron) having an average life of 2.2x10 -6 sec. they decay
spontaneously into an electron or positron, a -neutrino and
an ordinary neutrino according to the following scheme:
+ -> e+ + + v
- -> e- + v +
Energy of 105 MeV is released in the decay.

Neutrinos and Antineutrinos:

These particles have negligible rest mass and no
charge. They have a spin value of and a spin angular
momentum .
Neutrinos are of two kinds. Those associated with electrons
are called simply neutrinos (v) or electron neutrinos (v e)
while those associated with muons are called -neutrinos (v ).
Both of these neutrinos have their antiparticles denoted by
(or e) and respectively. They participate in weal interaction
with matter and hence their detection causes difficulty. In
1956, however, a nuclear reaction induced by neutrinos was
actually observed.

Mesons
Mesons are the agent of interaction between particles inside the nucleus.
Their existence was predicted by Yukawa in his meson theory of nuclear
forces.
Mesons are middle weight particles having masses intermediate between the
electrons and protons. They are all bosons having zero spin. They possess zero
intrinsic (spin) angular momentum and are unstable.
Variety of mesons is now known. They include:

-mesons or pions
-mesons were discovered in 1947 in the cosmic rays. They can exist in three
states: +, - and 0. The + and - are antiparticles of each other while 0
(neutral pi-meson) has no charge and it is its own anti particle.
+ and - mesons have a rest mass of 273 me (me being rest mass of electron)
while the rest mass of + meson is slightly less, equal to 264 me.

Pions interact strongly with nucleus

They are produced by collisions of high energy (kinetic energy 140 MeV)
protons with nucleons (proton or neutron) according to the following:
p + p = p + n + +
p + n = p + p + p + p = p + p + 0
They are also produced by annihilation of proton-antiproton and neutronantineutron:
p + p- = + + - + 0
n + n = + + - + 0
The -mesons are unstable particles. The average life time of charged mesons (0 and -) is of the order of 10-8 sec while that of neutral -mesons
(0) is still shorter (=9x10-17sec). Consequently, only a fraction of cosmic ray mesons can reach and they decay in flight by weak interaction into
corresponding muons and -neutrinos:
+ -> + +
- -> - +

+ and - further decay into e+ and e- respectively.

The neutral -meson (0) decays by an electromagnetic interaction into two
high energy -photons:
-> +

K-Mesons (or Kaons)

K-Mesons is a heavier class of mesons.
They exist as K+ and its antiparticles k-1 and
also as k0 and its antiparticles 0.
The charged K-mesons (K+ and K-) have rest
masses of 966me, spin zero and mean lives
1.2x10-8 sec. they commonly decay giving
rise to two or three less massive particles:
K+ -> + + + + K -> + o
K+ ->+ + V
K+ ->+ + o + o
The K0 mesons are produced through
strong interaction of high energy pions and
protons:
- + p+ -> 0 + Ko
Where 0 is lambda particle.
-Mesons: The central eta meson (+) was
discovered in1961. It has a rest mass of
1073 me and a zero spin value (boson). Its
average half life is 7x10-19 sec. in which it
decays electromagnetically in two photons.

Baryons
There are heavy weight elementary particles,
having their rest mass equal to or greater than
that of nucleon (Proton and neutrons), but less
than that of deuteron. They have spin values of
and hence are fermions. They are strongly
interacting and posses intrinsic angular
momentum Except protons, all baryons
are unstable.
Baryons have been grouped into two subclasses:
Nucleons

These are nuclear particles and include proton

(p), neutron (n) and their anti particles, anti
proton
and anti neutron . Proton has a mass
1836 me while neutrons mass Is 1839 m e. They
all have a spin of and are fermions.
Hyperons

The baryons possessing the rest mass greater

than that of nucleons are called hyperons. They
are unstable and have an average life time of
the order of 10-10 sec. Their decay time is very
much greater than the time of their formation
(10-3 sec). Therefore, these particles, along with
the K-mesons are called strange particles.

There are four types of hyperons

Lambda hyperons (0):- There are
two lambda hyperons, which have
zero charge and 2181 me, rest mass.
They are represented by 0 and
one is anti particles of the other.
Sigma Hyperons: - There are six
particles +, -, 0 and their anti
particles+, - ,o, they have
respectively positive, negative and
zero charges. + is the lightest of all
three particles having rest mass
2328 me.
Xi Hyperons: - There are four Xihyperons each with a ret mass of
2580 me. They are - (with negative
charge) and their anti particles.
Omega Hyperons: - - (with negative
charge) and its anti particles.
The spin of all hyperons is except
that of hyperons which have a spin
of.

Conservation laws
governing elementary
particles
The production and decay of elementary
particles is governed by certain
conservation laws. The applications of
these laws have led to the discovery of
new fundamental particles. The
discovery of neutrino in -decay is such
an example. In fact, by assuming the
validity of these laws, many of the
fundamental particles were first
predicted theoretically and then
discovered experimentally. These
conservation laws are essential features
of all interactions and are listed below:
Conservation of electric charge
Conservation of mass energy
Conservation of linear momentum
Conservation of angular momentum
(spin)

Law of conservation of
Lepton-Number
According to this law, in any
process the total lepton number is
always conserved. It includes the
conservation of electron-lepton
number (L) and conservation of
muon-lepton number (M).
L = +1 for electron and e-neutrino
(e- and ve)
L = -1 for anti leptons (e+ and ve)
L = 0 for all other particles.
SimilarlY, muon-lepton number.
M = +1 for meson and neutrino
M = -1 for their antiparticles
M = 0 for all other particles.

Law of conservation of
baryons number
According to this law, in any process,
the total baryon number is always
conserved. Conventionally, the baryon
number
B = +1 for baryons
B = -1 for anti baryons
B = 0 for all other particles
As an example, consider the decay of
neutron
N0 -> p+ + e- + e
For it
B = 1 -> 0 + 0