100% satisfaction guarantee Immediately available after payment Both online and in PDF No strings attached 4.2 TrustPilot
logo-home
Summary

AQA A-Level Physics Summary - Quarks and Leptons

Rating
-
Sold
-
Pages
4
Uploaded on
22-08-2025
Written in
2022/2023

The following document covers the basic of quarks and leptons in A-Level Physics. It includes topic such as the particle zoo, conservation laws and the different classifications of particles. These were the notes that I used to study and I hope you find them useful.

Show more Read less
Institution
Course








Whoops! We can’t load your doc right now. Try again or contact support.

Written for

Study Level
Examinator
Subject
Unit

Document information

Uploaded on
August 22, 2025
Number of pages
4
Written in
2022/2023
Type
Summary

Subjects

Content preview

🍋
Quarks and leptons
Tags Done

Last edited time @December 15, 2023 9:22 PM

Quarks and antiquarks
All particles (except from leptons) are made up of smaller particles called quarks. Different combinations of quarks
come together to form hadrons.
Quarks are what define a particles’ properties. Some of the quarks are shown below:
Some particles contain strange quarks. This causes them to have a property called strangness.




The particle zoo and particle classification
Mesons and their decays methods.
Particles discovered through the use of cloud chambers:

The Muon (symbol μ), a negatively charged particle with a rest mass 200x larger than a electron.

The Pion (π meson), can exhibit different charges. (π + , π − , π 0 )representing a positive, negative and neutral
pion respectively. Has a rest mass greater than a Muon but smaller than a proton.

The Kaon (K meson), can exhibit different charges. (K + , K − , K 0 ). Has a rest mass greater than a pion but
smaller than a proton.

These particles decay in certain ways. These are listed below:

A kaon decays into pions, or a muon and an antineutrino, or an antimuon and neutrino.

A charged pion can decay into a muon and an antineutrino, or an antimuon and a neutrino. A π 0 meson
decays into high energy photons

A muon decays into an electron and an antineutrino. An antimuon decays into a positron and a neutrino.



❗ ALL decays follow the laws for conservation of energy, momentum and charge.




Particles sorting and classification
Hadrons are heavy particles that interact with the strong interaction.

If neutrally charged then they interact through the gravitational and weak interactions.

If they are charged then they also interact through the strong and electromagnetic interactions.

Leptons are lighter particles that do not interact with the strong interaction.




Quarks and leptons 1
$4.80
Get access to the full document:

100% satisfaction guarantee
Immediately available after payment
Both online and in PDF
No strings attached

Get to know the seller
Seller avatar
andreasmullen

Get to know the seller

Seller avatar
andreasmullen The University of Birmingham
Follow You need to be logged in order to follow users or courses
Sold
0
Member since
4 months
Number of followers
0
Documents
23
Last sold
-

0.0

0 reviews

5
0
4
0
3
0
2
0
1
0

Recently viewed by you

Why students choose Stuvia

Created by fellow students, verified by reviews

Quality you can trust: written by students who passed their tests and reviewed by others who've used these notes.

Didn't get what you expected? Choose another document

No worries! You can instantly pick a different document that better fits what you're looking for.

Pay as you like, start learning right away

No subscription, no commitments. Pay the way you're used to via credit card and download your PDF document instantly.

Student with book image

“Bought, downloaded, and aced it. It really can be that simple.”

Alisha Student

Frequently asked questions