Context:
Physicists have reported the most precise estimate yet of the Top Quarks’ mass.
What are Quarks?
- It is one of the two (other being lepton) basic types of fundamental particles described under Standard Model of Physics.
- Ultimate building blocks of visible matter in the universe that make up the protons and neutrons of an atom.
- Under normal condition Quarks are always bound together by the strong nuclear force and never exist alone forming composite particles called hadrons.
- There are 6 quarks paired in three generations (increasing order of their weight and instability):
- Up quark and down quark
- Charm quark and strange quark
- Top quark and bottom quark
What are Top Quarks?
- It is the most massive elementary particle that exists, outweighing even the Higgs boson.
- 10-times heavier than a water molecule; 95% as much as a full caffeine molecule
- It is difficult to measure its mass due to its unstable nature.
- It breaks into lighter, more stable particles in less than 10−25 seconds.
- Discovered in 1995 at a particle accelerator in the US called the Tevatron.
What is Higgs boson?
- The fundamental force-carrying particle of the Higgs field, which is responsible for granting other particles their mass.
- Higgs field – An important source for all elementary particles which pervades the entire universe.
- 1st proposed by – Peter Higgs
- Discovered in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
- Mass – 125 billion electron volts and is 130 times more massive than a proton.
- It is charge-less with zero spin (Only elementary particle with no spin)
- Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism: The Higgs field generates mass via its interaction with other particles and the mechanism carried by the Higgs boson called the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism.
What is a boson?
- It is a “force carrier” particle that comes into play when particles interact with each other, with a boson exchanged during this interaction.
- Example: When two electrons interact they exchange a photon (the force-carrying particle of electromagnetic fields), The Higgs boson is the particle/wave or “quantized manifestation” that arises from the Higgs field when excited.
Source: The Hindu
Previous Year Question
The efforts to detect the existence of Higgs boson particle have become frequent news in the recent past. What is/are the importance (s) of discovering this particle?
1. It will enable us to understand as to why elementary particles have mass.
2. It will enable us in the near future to develop the technology of tranferring matter from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them.
3. It will enable us to create better fuels for nuclear fission.
Select the correct answer using the codes given below.
[UPSC Civil Services Exam – 2013 Prelims]
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer: (a)
