Particle zoo

Colloquial term for the list of known subatomic particles

In particle physics, the term particle zoo[1][2] is used colloquially to describe the relatively extensive list of known subatomic particles by analogy to the variety of species in a zoo.

In the history of particle physics, the topic of particles was considered to be particularly confusing in the late 1960s. Before the discovery of quarks, hundreds of strongly interacting particles (hadrons) were known and believed to be distinct elementary particles. It was later discovered that they were not elementary particles, but rather composites of quarks. The set of particles believed today to be elementary is known as the Standard Model and includes quarks, bosons and leptons.

The term "subnuclear zoo" was coined or popularized by Robert Oppenheimer in 1956 at the VI Rochester International Conference on High Energy Physics.[3]

## See also

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* Eightfold way (physics)
* List of mesons
* List of baryons
* List of particles

## References

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1. ^ Nuclear Technology. By Joseph A. Angelo. P. 12.
2. ^ Jacques Vanier. The Universe: A Challenge to the Mind. World Scientific, 2010. P. 548–551.
3. ^ George Johnson (1999). Strange Beauty: Murray Gell-Mann and the Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics, p. 755, footnote 108: Oppenheimer coined the term "subnuclear zoo" in a public lecture at the Rochester VI conference; Sec VIII, p 1 of the proceedings.

## Further reading

[edit]

* A Tour of the Subatomic Zoo: A Guide to Particle Physics. By Cindy Schwarz. Taylor & Francis US, 1997
* Raymond A. Serway, Clement J. Moses, Curt A. Moyer. Modern Physics. Cengage Learning, 2005.

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Particles in physics

Elementary|

| Fermions|

| Quarks|

* Up (quark
* antiquark)
* Down (quark
* antiquark)
* Charm (quark
* antiquark)
* Strange (quark
* antiquark)
* Top (quark
* antiquark)
* Bottom (quark
* antiquark)

|

Leptons|

* Electron
* Positron
* Muon
* Antimuon
* Tau
* Antitau
* Neutrino
* Electron neutrino
* Electron antineutrino
* Muon neutrino
* Muon antineutrino
* Tau neutrino
* Tau antineutrino

Bosons|

| Gauge|

* Photon
* Gluon
* W and Z bosons

|

Scalar|

* Higgs boson

Ghost fields|

* Faddeev–Popov ghosts

Hypothetical|

| Superpartners|

| Gauginos|

* Gluino
* Gravitino
* Photino

|

Others|

* Axino
* Chargino
* Higgsino
* Neutralino
* Sfermion (Stop squark)

Others|

* Axion
* Curvaton
* Dilaton
* Dual graviton
* Graviphoton
* Graviton
* Inflaton
* Leptoquark
* Magnetic monopole
* Majoron
* Majorana fermion
* Dark photon
* Preon
* Sterile neutrino
* Tachyon
* W′ and Z′ bosons
* X and Y bosons

Composite|

| Hadrons|

| Baryons|

* Nucleon
* Proton
* Antiproton
* Neutron
* Antineutron
* Delta baryon
* Lambda baryon
* Sigma baryon
* Xi baryon
* Omega baryon

|

Mesons|

* Pion
* Rho meson
* Eta and eta prime mesons
* Bottom eta meson
* Phi meson
* J/psi meson
* Omega meson
* Upsilon meson
* Kaon
* B meson
* D meson
* Quarkonium

Exotic hadrons|

* Tetraquark (Double-charm tetraquark)
* Pentaquark

Others|

* Atomic nuclei
* Atoms
* Exotic atoms
* Positronium
* Muonium
* Tauonium
* Onia
* Pionium
* Protonium
* Antihydrogen
* Superatoms
* Molecules

Hypothetical|

| Baryons|

* Hexaquark
* Heptaquark
* Skyrmion

|

Mesons|

* Glueball
* Theta meson
* T meson

Others|

* Mesonic molecule
* Pomeron
* Diquark
* R-hadron

Quasiparticles|

* Anyon
* Davydov soliton
* Dropleton
* Exciton
* Fracton
* Hole
* Magnon
* Phonon
* Plasmaron
* Plasmon
* Polariton
* Polaron
* Roton
* Trion

Lists|

* Baryons
* Mesons
* Particles
* Quasiparticles
* Timeline of particle discoveries

Related|

* History of subatomic physics
* timeline
* Standard Model
* mathematical formulation
* Subatomic particles
* Particles
* Antiparticles
* Nuclear physics
* Eightfold way
* Quark model
* Exotic matter
* Massless particle
* Relativistic particle
* Virtual particle
* Wave–particle duality
* Particle chauvinism

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