The "Periodic Table" of elementary particles: The Standard
Model
Many of the elementary particles and force carriers of
nature have been discovered during the first part of our one hundred
years. These particles include the quarks
proposed by Gell-Mann
and
neutrinos first seen by Reines
and Cowan
with later contributions by Lederman,
Schwartz, and Steinberger. Important discoveries
at Brookhaven
National Laboratory, the Stanford
Linear Accelerator Center, and
Fermilab have shown that there are three generation of quarks and
leptons. CERN
discovered the W and Z, the enormously heavy intermediate
bosons.
This complex set of particles and force carriers was
forged into the Standard Model by many theorists including Glashow,
Salam, and Weinberg. This theory describes the famous
link between the electric forces familiar from every day life and the
weak forces of radioactivity. The addition of gluons (g) to the mix
explains
the forces that hold the atomic nucleus together.
This simple table embodies nearly all the particle
physics we see today at even the most powerful accelerators such as the
Fermilab Tevatron. (A quick guide to the table appears at Standard
Model.)
