Another example of the weak interaction is the interaction between a proton and an electron

called electron capture. This occurs when a nuclear proton captures an electron from the
surrounding cloud and becomes a neutron.

Conservation Laws

There are several conservation laws that help us predict the outcome of the particle reactions that
are observed in accelerator experiments.

Charge (Q) is conserved in all interactions.

Leptons are assigned a Lepton number (L). L = 1 for leptons and L = -1 for antileptons. Lepton
number is conserved in all interactions.

Baryons are assigned a Baryon number (B). B = 1 for baryons and B = -1 for antibaryons.
Baryon number is conserved in all interactions.

Strange quarks possess a property called Strangeness (S). S = -1 for strange quarks and S = 1 for
antistrange quarks. Strangeness is conserved in all but the weak interaction (this is because the
weak interaction involves one type of quark changing into another as we have seen).
Consider the following reaction:

Q: 1 + -1 = 0 + 0
B: 1 + 0 = 1 + 0
L: 0 + 1 = 0 + 1

This is in fact ''electron capture''. It is allowed because Q, B and L are all conserved.

Look now at the following: .

Q: 1 + -1 = 1 + -1
B: 1 + -1 = 0 + 0
L: 0 + 0 = 0 + 1

This reaction is not allowed because Lepton number is not conserved.

Particle families

Leptons Hadrons
They are made up of quarks. They experience
They do not experience strong nuclear force
strong nuclear force . e.g. protons & neutrons
E.g. electrons
E.g. protons and neutrons

Baryons Mesons
They are made up of 3 quarks. They are
They are made up of one quark and one anti
heaviest group of particles .
quark. They are lightest group of particles.

Protons Neutrons
Quark composition= up down down = udd
Quark composition= up up down = uud
Strangeness = 0 Strangeness = 0
s
 Forces
Forces always come in pairs (Remember Newton's third law). If you jump up in the air the Earth
moves (slightly) in the other direction. After reaching your maximum height the gravitational
force causes you to accelerate downwards and at the same time the Earth accelerates upwards to
meet you. The forces are the result of an interaction between yourself and the Earth. On the
smallest scale forces between fundamental particles are usually referred to as interactions.

Four types of interactions( forces)

1.Gravitational interaction affects particles with mass. It is the weakest

interaction but governs the large scale structure of the universe because of its
infinite range.

2.Weak interaction affects all particles. It is, as its name suggests, very weak and
its range is extremely short. It is responsible for beta decay as we shall see.

3.Electromagnetic interaction affects particles with charge. It has an infinite

range like gravity but is much stronger than both it and the weak interaction.

4. strong interaction affects hadrons (i.e. particles made from quarks). It binds
the quarks together but a residual effect of this is to bind the nucleons together in
the nucleus. It is the strongest interaction but it has a very short range.
Quarks
There are three quarks: up, down and strange and each has a corresponding antiquark of opposite
charge.

Charge/e = Charge/e =

up u down d

charm c strange s

top t bottom b

These are all unstable

An odd property of quarks is that they have charges that are fractions of the electron charge. The
up quark has a charge of +2/3e and the strange and down quarks -1/3e.

Baryons consist of 3 quarks. For example:

Baryon quark composition charge/e

neutron udd
proton uud