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Elementary particles
Beginner
Quarks, leptons and gauge bosons are the basic building blocks.
Particles with no known substructure: quarks, leptons, gauge bosons and the Higgs. All ordinary matter is made from up and down quarks and electrons.
A proton is made of uud quarks.
'Elementary' means no internal structure has been found.
In more detail
Elementary particles are particles with no known internal structure, such as quarks, leptons and force carriers. All ordinary matter is built from a few of them.
Real-world uses
- Particle detectors identify elementary particles from their tracks and energies.
- Understanding elementary particles explains the origin of mass and chemistry.
- Physicists building detectors need to know which particles are made of quarks and which are leptons, since they interact differently.
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Frequently asked questions
What are the most common elementary particles?
Electrons, up quarks, down quarks, photons and neutrinos.
Are protons elementary?
No, protons are made of quarks, so they are composite.
What are the basic building blocks?
Six quarks, six leptons and the force-carrying bosons, which together make up the Standard Model of particle physics.