3 Subatomic Stories: Charged leptons

The most familiar subatomic particle is the electron, which is a member of a class of particles called the charged lepton. In addition, there are two cousin particles, the muon and the tau lepton. In this video, episode 3 of the Subatomic Stories series, Fermilab’s Dr. Don Lincoln takes us on a whirlwind tour of these interesting particles and then launches into answering a series of questions from previous videos.

The physics of g-2:

What is quantum mechanics all about?:

Quantum entanglement:

Fermilab physics 101:

Fermilab home page:

[UltraSteaKME]

Don Lincoln definitely has the best explanations out there for who wants to discover physics and particules. Always a pleasure to follow this channel, so thank you Don of course, but also all the people behind the scene we forget too often and without whom this wouldn't be possible!

[GuyNamedSean]

I've never thought about it before, but now I'm really curious about the physical mechanisms behind annihilation. How do particles annihilate each other? Why exactly can only matching pairs annihilate? What happens with non-matching pairs that's different?

[BothHands]

the question section was a lot more educational than the first 2 mins you spent talking about leptons.

i did want to hear a lot more about the less familiar leptons, but your question section was really good and educational, so i forgive you :p

[meranism]

Hi SIR! With my sincere appreciation for your effort and willingness to share such valuable knowledge, I'd like to ask a question:
I have a problem with these little guys here: (charm, top, bottom, strange, muon, tau). I can not fully understand what do they do in the universe? We know for example Up and Down are building blocks of protons and neutrons, Higs bosons are responsible for mass and so on... but how about these particles? What do they build? Or what do they do? And most importantly would universe still exist without them ? Do we need them ?

[acathosh]

It's always exciting to hear about your experiments!
Keep up the good work, love from Norway :D

[kpdubbs]

Just want to say thanks for keeping up these videos. It is really great to be able to learn about these amazing topics especially during these times when we want distractions from other things.

[brothermine]

Dr. Lincoln, do you plan to tell us about Quantum Field Theory and why particle physicists call particles fundamental instead of calling fields fundamental? Also, do the different kinds of quarks correspond to different fields?

[Shel]

Recently I watched part of free course 8.04 in quantum mechanics offered by MIT up in Boston. It was the most bewildering set of calculations I've ever seen. Totally incomprehensible! And yet, Dr. Lincoln understands it so well that he can explain it so that someone like me can "sort of" understand it. Great videos Dr. Lincoln, keep them coming!

[EgonSorensen]

When the matter antimatter annihilation happens, energy is released - shown in the video as fireworks at 8:50
Energy is measured in Joules, which according to Wikipedia converts to electronsvolts or energy flow which acts on objects in the direction of the force's motion through a distance.
Can you explain what the firework mechanics are, besides a nice animation 🤯 - and what happens when the fireworks interacts with the objects it interacts with. Thanks for a great show! 🥳👍

[airmakay]

Really enjoying this series. So many subatomic stories to tell.

[TheSgrizli]

only 3 minutes of explaning? We demand more information!

[ejtwagon]

I put these videos on when I can't sleep. I never thought that I would actually learn a lot about physics!

[GottfriedLeibnizYT]

6:38
Wait a second. How come is it possible to group a quark and antimatter quark? Wouldn't they annihilate each other at such proximity?

[ltrz]

1. How do you measure the mass of such small particles?
2. How can you measure the number of particles in a combination of quarks?

[adammoussa]

I love this format of the video
being cut into small very small chunks and every small chunk is being discussed in detail thx to the comments questions and the answers on the next video

[ArvelJoffi]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I’m just an armchair physics enthusiast, but the “fractional charge” thing has been driving me nuts. This is the first time in several books, and hundred of videos, podcasts, websites and magazine articles that anyone has spelled it out clearly. And it’s so damn simple! Thank you!

[pressaltfforfreevbucks]

Even during quarantine physics, is everything

[Mt.Berry-o]

Amazing videos.
Thank you, you make this awkward circumstances more bearable

[eliodecolli]

How would you explain electron degeneracy? How can protons assimilate electrons and turn into neutrons on high pressures? What happens to the quarks and gluons inside the proton?

EDIT: Upon reading on Wikipedia, from what I understood, electron degeneracy pressure is manifested by the Pauli Exclusion principle, which in turn seems to act before the electrostatic force? Stable matter (ie particles not collapsing onto each other) is the result of the exclusion principle right? I've read something like this on Quora too before very amazing if that's what really happens. But it still doesn't answer the question what happens inside a proton when an electron falls in?

[mdwoods]

You always have the most interesting videos. Thank you. :)