Quantum Mechanics: Properties Of Elementary Particles

---
Please SUBSCRIBE to Science & Reason:
---

PARTICLE PHYSICS

Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the elementary constituents of matter and radiation, and the interactions between them. It is also called high energy physics, because many elementary particles do not occur under normal circumstances in nature, but can be created and detected during energetic collisions of other particles, as is done in particle accelerators. Research in this area has produced a long list of particles.

SUBATOMIC PARTICLES

Modern particle physics research is focused on subatomic particles, including atomic constituents such as electrons, protons, and neutrons (protons and neutrons are actually composite particles, made up of quarks), particles produced by radioactive and scattering processes, such as photons, neutrinos, and muons, as well as a wide range of exotic particles.

Strictly speaking, the term particle is a misnomer because the dynamics of particle physics are governed by quantum mechanics. As such, they exhibit wave-particle duality, displaying particle-like behavior under certain experimental conditions and wave-like behavior in others (more technically they are described by state vectors in a Hilbert space; see quantum field theory).

Following the convention of particle physicists, "elementary particles" refer to objects such as electrons and photons, it is well known that these "particles" display wave-like properties as well.

All the particles and their interactions observed to date can almost be described entirely by a quantum field theory called the Standard Model.

The Standard Model has 17 species of elementary particles (12 fermions (24 if you count antiparticles separately), 4 vector bosons (5 if you count antiparticles separately), and 1 scalar bosons), which can combine to form composite particles, accounting for the hundreds of other species of particles discovered since the 1960s.

The Standard Model has been found to agree with almost all the experimental tests conducted to date. However, most particle physicists believe that it is an incomplete description of nature, and that a more fundamental theory awaits discovery. In recent years, measurements of neutrino mass have provided the first experimental deviations from the Standard Model.

Particle physics has had a large impact on the philosophy of science. Some particle physicists adhere to reductionism, a point of view that has been criticized and defended by philosophers and scientists. Part of the debate is described below.

THE STANDARD MODEL

The current state of the classification of elementary particles is the Standard Model. It describes the strong, weak, and electromagnetic fundamental forces, using mediating gauge bosons.

The species of gauge bosons are the gluons, W− and W+ and Z bosons, and the photons. The model also contains 24 fundamental particles, which are the constituents of matter. Finally, it predicts the existence of a type of boson known as the Higgs boson, which is yet to be discovered.

ELEMENTARY PARTICLES

In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a particle not known to have substructure; that is, it is not known to be made up of smaller particles. If an elementary particle truly has no substructure, then it is one of the basic building blocks of the universe from which all other particles are made. In the Standard Model, the quarks, leptons, and gauge bosons are elementary particles.

Historically, the hadrons (mesons and baryons such as the proton and neutron) and even whole atoms were once regarded as elementary particles. A central feature in elementary particle theory is the early 20th century idea of "quanta", which revolutionised the understanding of electromagnetic radiation and brought about quantum mechanics.

For mathematical purposes, elementary particles are normally treated as point particles, although some particle theories such as string theory posit a physical dimension.

---

The Cassiopeia Project - making science simple!

The Cassiopeia Project is an effort to make high quality science videos available to everyone. If you can visualize it, then understanding is not far behind.

.

[charliesarmmole]

I remember getting really high on mushrooms and weed and watching these videos. It was quite an experience I'll never forget. It's like I shrunk to the size of a quark

[faustus]

THIS WHOLE SERIES OF ANIMATIONS ARE EXTREMELY INFORMATIVE AND INTERESTING. THEY ARE SO HELPFUL TO THE UN EDUCATED LIKE MY GOOD SELF.

[heyzeusful]

lol on the twins bit. "We can treat them separately." "We CAN?!?!?!"

[ObakeOnna]

This series is really blowing my mind. The last time I've felt this way is when I read that positrons are actually elecrons moving backwards in time.

[truvelocity]

They aren't popping in and out of "All" existence, just measurable existence that we can measure, so when they pop out, it is something we can't measure, so the theory is that they are moving to another dimension and coming back again.

As long as there is vibrational energy which causes it to appear in this existence, it will fluctuate like a particle appearing and disappearing, because all matter is vibrational energy. That vibration is described as a wave.

[Emcee]

@ellimist6
I was wondering the same thing. It is a scholastic metaphysical principle that "whatever is moved into existence is moved by another" since only things that EXIST can be said to CAUSE and whatever CAUSES necessarily EXISTS in order to CAUSE then the "electron which no longer exists" cannot bring itself into existence because nothingness cannot "bring into existence". So either some already existing thing causes the electron to reappear or the electron never ceased existing at all.

[rickwyant]

Will look up the book, fascinating subject I think but has me always asking alot of questions.. thanks for the suggestion ..

[Xero]

this is a good video... i wasnt expecting them to go into wavefunction and schrodinger's equation... i'm a chemist but i have to deal with this stuff all the time

[bobster]

@SubTachyon Actually it is two electrons per sub-shell which is the case. The Second electron orbits contain one S and three P subshells, The third level contains one S, three P and five D sub orbits.

[SubTachyon]

@MasterFPunkt: Only the first shell is limited to 2 electrons. Second shell can contain 8 and third can contain up to 18 and so on.

[MITHWORLD]

Excellent, thanks again bestofscience.

[loungelizard]

As usual, great videos and they keep me entertained long enough to perhaps learn something- or make it not too boring, so I can watch it a few times to let it sink in!
Better proofreading would help though.  If they changed Fermi's name to Fermion (4:42), what else might they get wrong?  I'm guessing the narrator is not a specialist in physics.

[zodiacastro]

great and informative about the Quantum World.

[Akumeitakai]

Very insightful! I had no idea this is what all that wishy washy newage crap was trying to coopt all along! What a concise and clear explanation.

[jdzsf]

One thing I don't understand (it is not in your video, but I know physicists say that), is why the graviton - which has not yet be detected - has a spin of 2. It is the only particle having that spin. Why?

[AlphaCrucis]

This is awesome! It explains many of the things I've been wondering about.

[tylerfh]

suppose you have a shell filled with its two electrons, one with spin up and one with spin down. what's to stop another electron with spin up from coming in and cancelling out the first electron with spin up, leaving just the spin-down electron (since having two electrons in the same state yields no electrons)? For that matter, what stops all the electrons in the universe from disappearing because of this?

[bimblinghill]

@Jenny: Could you please provide ddetails, so that we may be better informed?

[XCyclonusX]

How do you eliminate the possibility of cosmic rays or neutrinos or any other for of energy from causing the delta E in the space?

[kurtilein]

Pauli Exclusion Principle !

make sure to to rate this video up, im studying Physics and this is the real deal :)