Quarks

[BrokenQuill92]

So I've searched and searched not one book seems to be able to tell me what these things are made of! Or exactly why they can't be separated from larger masses. Of course I could just be looking in the wrong places. So far I've gone through Particle Physics 101, Back to Basics: Atomic Theories, and The All Mighty Atom.

[My imaginary friend is GOD]

You mean this guy, right? [/Trekkie reference]

[Alex K]

In our currently best model of particles, fields and their interactions called thw Standard Model, Quarks, like Electrons, are treated as point particles without substructure (they do have quantum uncertainty though). They are just represented as quanta of energy with certain properties but no size (contrast this with protons and neutrons). This may change with further observations, but so far there is no Indication of substructure or measurable size.

The so-called "strong interaction" fundamemtal force of chromodynamics which quarks, unlike Electrons, are subject to, becomes weaker at short distance scales and stronger at long ones because virtual particles contribute to the force in a positive way, and more distance means more virtual particles in between (somewhat simplistic explanation of a rigorous quantum field calculation called renormalization group running). The insight that this effect has positive sign gained Wilczek, Politzer and Gross the Nobel a few years ago. The consequence is that at large distance separation, the quarks and gluons bind so strongly that they form a kind of energy string like a band of glue between separated quarks. If you force them apart more, this string tears and produces two new quarks, giving you two shorter strings and more particles. This is how the showers of dozens or hundreds of particles at the LHC are created.

[safa100]

Quarks and Leptons are the building blocks which build up matter, i.e., they are seen as the "elementary particles". In the present standard model.

[Fromper]

You mean this guy, right? [/Trekkie reference]

No, that's Quark, without an "s" on the end. They may be talking about Quark's, which is his bar, but then they left out the apostrophe.

But I had the same thought when I spotted the title of the thread.

[Psykhronic]

I know Brian Greene describes quarks and what they are in The Elegant Universe. I suggest to anyone wanting to know more about quantum mechanics in general to pick up that book.

[Jacob(smooth)]

It's the noise made by posh, English ducks

[max-greece]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark

Seems fairly up to date. I didn't get much of it but I guess if it doesn't answer your questions then the answers may not be known.

Hope it helps.

[BrokenQuill92]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark

Seems fairly up to date. I didn't get much of it but I guess if it doesn't answer your questions then the answers may not be known.

Hope it helps.

Checked there too but maybe science hasn't caught up to my questions yet. I understand what quarks ARE I want know what the heck they're composed of, and why they can't seem to be isolated.

[FreeTony]

Checked there too but maybe science hasn't caught up to my questions yet. I understand what quarks ARE I want know what the heck they're composed of, and why they can't seem to be isolated.

They are point particles, so they are not thought to be composed of anything. Alex K has described why you can't isolate them.

With science you make a model, then test this model to see if it is a good representation of reality. It is still a representation. People think of particles like billiard balls because they understand a newtonian billiard ball, but this is in some aspects a poor model.

This is just like the question "is an electron a particle or a wave?". Well actually it is neither, that is just how we have modelled it in order to understand it. I don't think it is really possible to imagine what these things are actually like, as you are limited by what your brain can currently understand, just as you cannot visualise 4 space dimensions. You can get around this by understanding the mathematics, but this requires years of study. For example particles have a property called spin. However this does not mean that the particle is spinning in the way you'd visualise the Earth spinning (it is a point particle).

So all we know is that there is stuff out there, and it approximately follows laws that we have managed to determine.