Particle Physics Flashcards
Nucleon
A proton or neutron
Isotope
A nuclide with the same proton number but different number of neutrons
Lepton
a fundamental particle not made of quarks
Baryon
A particle made of three quarks
Meson
A particle made of 1 quark and 1 antiquark
Hadron
Any particle made of quarks
Alpha particle
A helium nucleus made up of 2 protons and 2 neutron
Beta minus
An electron
Beta positive particle
An antielectron or positron
Beta minus decay
Neutron changing to a proton
Neutrino
Very light particle released during positron decay in order to conserve lepton number
Down
1 type of quark in a proton
Strange
1 type of quark that has a strangeness of -1
Alpha
Decay that has a range of a few cm
Becquerel
Unit of activity
Decay constant
Relates activity to the number of nuclei by the equation A = lambda N
Half life
The time for the activity of source to drop by half
Binding energy
Energy required to separate a nucleus into its constituent parts
Fission
The process of splitting a nucleus into smaller nuclei, releasing energy
Fusion
The process of joining two small nuclei together, releasing energy
