Quark

Quark is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei. Due to a phenomenon known as color confinement, quarks are never directly observed or found in isolation; they can be found only within hadrons, such as baryons (of which protons and neutrons are examples), and mesons.

History

The concept of quark was first proposed by Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig in 1964. The name "quark" was taken from the book Finnegans Wake by James Joyce.

Types of Quarks

There are six types of quarks, known as flavors: up, down, strange, charm, top, and bottom. Up and down quarks have the lowest masses of all quarks. The heavier quarks rapidly change into up and down quarks through a process of particle decay: the transformation from a higher mass state to a lower mass state.

Quark Interactions

Quarks are subject to the strong interaction, the fundamental force that controls the behavior of the atomic nucleus. This force binds quarks together to form particles such as protons and neutrons.

See Also

• Elementary particle
• Standard Model
• Quantum chromodynamics
• Particle physics

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