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Quantum Physics
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lord_shiva
23-Oct-21, 16:22

Quantum Physics
Before there were atoms there were quarks.

There are six flavors of quark, named top, bottom, truth, beauty, strangeness, and charm.

Why are quarks called quarks? The name comes from James Joyce's Ullyses, "three quarks for muster Mark!"

Two quarks, a quark and antiquark pair, form a meson. A baryon is three quarks. Since there are six quarks, that makes 56 different types of baryon. But the truth quark (truth and beauty were renamed top and bottom) forms no baryon. Apparently it does not last long enough to partner with other quarks. That eliminates 21 possibilities, leaving 56-21=35 baryons.

UUU, UUD, UDD, and DDD are delta baryons. In non excited states, UUD and UDD are special, with very long half lives. The UUD baryon is known as the proton. The U quark charge is +2/3, and the D quark charge is -1/3. So by now you will have added these up for the net proton charge, and guessed the name for the UDD baryon.
lord_shiva
26-Oct-21, 22:43

Baryons
Up, Down, Top, Bottom, Strange, Charm
UUU, UUD, UDD, DDD
UUB, UBB, DDB, DBB
BBB, BBS, BSS, SSS
SSS, SSC, SCC, CCC
UDB, UDS, UDC, UUS, USS, USC, UBS, UBC, UCC

DBS, DBC, DSS, DSC, DCC
BSC, BCC
SSC, SCC, CCC

That is 35 different baryons. Pretty sure I made no repeats. Notice the top quark is not in any of them.



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