Particles and waves Flashcards
Baryons
Made of 3 quarks
Is a hadron
Mesons
Made of 2 quarks
Is a hadron
Hadrons
Composed of quarks
Two types: baryons
Mesons
Bosons
Force carrier
Photon
Electromagnetic force Carrier
Gluon
Strong nuclear force carrier
Acts between quarks to keep neutrons in the nucleus
W & Z bosons
Weak nuclear force carrier
Responsible for radioactive decay
Quarks
Up Charm Top
Down Strange Bottom
Leptons
Electron Muon Tau
Electron Neutrino Muon neutrino Tau neutrino
Fermions
All matter / particles
Alpha decay
Atomic number of parent nucleus reduces by 2
Mass number of parent nucleus reduces by 4
Alpha particle emitted
Symbol for the nucleus of an atom
/mass number (number of protons and neutrons)
A
X
Z
\atomic number(number of protons)
Beta decay
beta particle(Electron) emitted
A neutron in the nucleus changes to a proton
(Due to an up quark changing to a down quark)
Anti-neutrino emitted
Atomic number is increased by 1
Mass number unchanged
α
Alpha particle
4
He (helium)
2
-
β
Beta particle
0
e
-1
Gamma decay
Alpha and beta often accompanied by gamma radiation
Type of electromagnetic radiation
Produced due to redistribution of charge in the nucleus
Gamma radiation often emitted after alpha and beta as nucleus left in excited state(high energy)
Atomic and mass number unaffected as gamma is a wave
γ
Gamma particle
Photon
Spontaneous decay
Heavy nucleus splints into 2 lighter nuclei
Free neutrons produced
More neutrons than nuclei produced so chain reaction occurs
