7.
3 Structure of Atom
1. Key points to know
You must know:
-quarks are used to explain the patterns in nuclear
particles
-leptons have two forms - charged and uncharged - and
that neither form takes part in strong interactions
-the Standard Model uses six quarks and six leptons
to describe our present view of matter
-there are two families of hadrons: baryons with three
quarks, and mesons that are a quarkantiquark pair
-the conservation laws of charge, baryon number, lep-
ton number and strangeness
-the nature and range of the strong nuclear, weak nu-
clear and electromagnetic forces
-there are exchange particles and how they mediate
the fundamental forces.
You should be able to:
-use the conservation of charge, baryon number, lep-
ton number and strangeness to solve problems invol-
ving particle interactions describe protons and neu-
trons in terms of quarks
-compare the interaction strengths of the fundamental
forces including gravity
-describe the mediation of the fundamental particles
through exchange particles
-sketch and interpret Feynman diagrams
-describe why free quarks are not observed
-describe the details of the Rutherford-GeigerMarsden
experiment that led to the discovery of the nucleus
-what constitutes a Feynman diagram
-describe confinement and explain why free quarks are
not observed explain
-that there is a Higgs boson which accounts for the
mass of quarks and charged leptons.
2. Gold foil experiment
The above Rutherford-Geiger-Marsden Gold foil
experiment proved the modern theory of atomic struc-
ture. These were the observations:
a. Most of the a-particles passed undeviated.
b. Only few a-particles (about 0.14% ) were scattered
by more than 1◦ .
c. Some a-particles were deflected slightly and very
few ( 1 in 8000) deflected by more than 90◦ .
d. Some a-particles were bounced back with θ = 180◦ .
These showed that is a VERY heavy dense centre that
occupies a tiny fraction of the atomic space and that
centre is positive. Majority of the atomic space is
empty and since atom itself is neutral, means elec-
trons must be in the empty space.
the above example is of carbon atom and nucleus.
This simple model has limitations. Accelerated char-
ges are known to radiate energy so orbital electrons
should constantly lose energy (the changing direction
means the electrons are accelerating).
3. Classification of particles
Particle accelerator experiments identify many, many
‘new’ particles. Two original classes of particles were
identified –
the leptons (= ‘light’) and the hadrons (= ‘he-
avy’).
Protons and neutrons are hadrons whereas electrons
are leptons. The hadrons were subdivided into me-
sons and baryons. Protons and neutrons are baryons.
Another class of particles is involved in the mediation
of the interactions between the particles. These were
called gauge bosons or ‘exchange bosons’.
Baryons are type of hadrons which have a Each
particle also has an antimatter counterpart.
When matter collides with its corresponding antimat-
ter, the particles annihilate and release energy by
mass-energy equivalence.
The Standard Model uses three groups of particles
to describe interactions within nucleons.
Quarks: These combine to form hadrons which di-
vide into the sub-groups baryons [which contain th-
ree quarks) and mesons (which contain two quarks:
a quarkantiquark pair].
Leptons: These cannot combine with each
other.
Exchange particles: these convey information from
quark to lepton and between members of each group.
4. Leptons and Quarks
There are six different leptons and six different anti-
leptons.
The electron and the electron neutrino have a lepton
(electron family) number of +1. The antielectron and
the antielectron neutrino have a lepton (electron fa-
mily) number of 1. Similar principles are used to
assign lepton numbers of +1 or 1 to the muon
and the tau family members.
Lepton family number is also conserved in all reac-
tions.
Isolated quarks cannot exist. They can exist only in
twos or threes. Mesons are made from two quarks (a
quark and an antiquark) whereas baryons are made
up of a combination of three quarks (either all quarks
or all antiquarks).
5. Exchange Particles or Bosons
There are only four fundamental interactions that
exist: Gravity, Electromagnetic, Strong and
Weak.
All four interactions can be thought of as being medi-
ated by an exchange of particles. Each interaction has
its own exchange particle or particles. The bigger
the mass of the exchange boson, the smaller
the range of the force concerned.
Higgs Boson:
In addition to the three generations of leptons and
quarks in the standard model there are the four clas-
ses of gauge boson and an additional highly massive
boson, the Higgs boson. This was proposed in 1964
to explain the process by which particles can acquire
mass. In 2013 scientists working with the Large Ha-
dron Collider announced the experimental detection
of a particle that that matched the standard model’s
predictions for the Higgs boson.
6. Quark Confinement
In quantum chromodynamics (QCD), color con-
finement, often simply called quark confinement, is
the phenomenon that color charged particles (such
as quarks and gluons) cannot be isolated, and there-
fore cannot be directly observed in normal conditions
below the Hagedorn temperature of approximately 2
trillion kelvin.
the attractive potential (energy) of the strong inte-
raction between two quarks (or a quark and an an-
tiquark) grows with their separation. Therefore, as
one attempts to separate two quarks, more and more
energy must be invested; as this energy reaches a th-
reshold to create a quark-antiquark pair, the original
two quarks are separated—but within the new bound
states:
Here, a quark is depicted green and an antiquark red;
in stage 3, the energy invested into separating the ori-
ginal quark-antiquark pair (far left) produces a “ne-
wly minted” quark-antiquark pair, which then form
new bound states (mesons) in which the original quark
and antiquark remain bound, i.e., un-isolated.
To a good approximation, the attractive potential
between a quark and an antiquark—just as well
between two quarks grows linearly with dis-
tance. This is somewhat similar to an elastic rubber
band or a spring, where the restoring potential also
grows with the separation.
7. Feynman Diagram 8. More examples Feynman Diagram
Feynman diagrams can be used to represent possi-
ble particle interaction.
In the Feynman diagrams below the x-axis represents
time going from left to right and the y-axis repre-
sents space (some books reverse these two axes). To
view them in the alternative way, turn the page anti-
clockwise by 90 degrees.
Some simple rules help in the construction of cor-
rect diagrams:
- Each junction in the diagram (vertex) has an arrow
going in and one going out. These will represent a
lepton-lepton transition or a quark-quark transition.
- Quarks or leptons are solid straight lines.
- Exchange particles are either wavy or broken (pho-
tons, W± or Z◦ ) or curly (gluons).
- Time flows from left to right. Arrows from left to
right represent particles travelling forward in time.
Arrows from right to left represent antiparticles tra-
velling forward in time.
- The labels for the different particles are shown at
the end of the line.
- The junctions will be linked by a line representing
the exchange particle involved.
Some examples are below:

The particles mediating the strong interaction can

be considered to involve the exchange of composite
particles ( π mesons: π + , π − or π ◦ ) whereas the fun-
damental colour interaction is always seen as the ex-
change of gluons.