Basnet: What’s inside an atom?

Sans Basnet, IC Columnist

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All building blocks of matter are made up of elementary particles, particles that cannot be sub-divided. They are fundamental. This phenomenon can be explained by the “Standard Model of Particle Physics” or, for science geeks, a gauge quantum field theory. The standard model, therefore, consists of a set of Fermions, Leptons and Bosons.
Fermions are divided into two categories; quarks and leptons. There are six quarks altogether. Up, down, charm, strange, top, bottom. And six leptons; electron, muon, tau, electron-neutrino, muon-neutrino, and tau-neutrino. As of now, there are five experimentally verified gauge bosons: photon, gluon, W and Z boson, and the Higgs Boson. Confirmed in 2012, the Higgs Boson gives mass to all other subatomic particles. In popular culture it is referred to as the ‘God particle.’
Let me attempt to explain the simplest element, a hydrogen atom. A hydrogen has one proton and one electron, very simple. Electron is a part of the “Standard Model,” so it ought to be fundamental. However, proton isn’t.
A proton is made up of quarks and gluons. The combination of one up quark and two down quarks makes a proton. Thus, two up and one down makes a neutron. The quarks in a proton are band by gluons. Gluons are force carriers; they mediate strong force between quarks. So three of these quarks exchange strong force via the gluons. The mathematics around this is called ‘Quantum Chromodynamics,’ one of physics’ hardest calculations.

Everything you observe in nature is derived from these quark combinations, including humans. We are made of mostly proton and neutron, so we can call ourselves baryonic matter.
There are four fundamental forces in nature: strong, weak, electromagnetism, and gravitation. Particle physics explains these forces through force carriers. For instance, the strong force is carried by gluons, weak by W and Z bosons, electromagnetic interaction via photon, and experimentally unconfirmed graviton carries gravitational interaction.
The “Standard Model” was developed in the last half-century, so it is a fairly recent scientific achievement. In theory, any phenomenon that occurs in nature can be summarized with the complex mathematics of the standard model, other than gravity.
The story goes in the very beginning when the universe was in the hot and dense state. Shortly after the Big Bang, the four forces of nature were combined into one unified force. Once the universe expanded and cooled down, gravity was first separated. Physicists have managed to combine the three of these four forces in the standard model, but gravity seems to be the hard one.

Gravitation is prominent in astronomical objects while the physics of small is explained by quantum mechanics. The problem is how to combine these two fields into one beautiful Theory of Everything? We will not go deeper into that because it deserves its own article.

Sans Basnet is a second-year student studying Physics and Mathematics. You can email me the answer at [email protected] or tweet @SansBasnet.

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Basnet: What’s inside an atom?