elementary particles
Matter's smallest units
Elementary particles are the fundamental constituents of matter and energy—particles with no known internal structure or smaller components.
The standard model identifies quarks, leptons (including electrons and neutrinos), and bosons (force-carrying particles like photons and gluons).
Unlike atoms or protons, elementary particles cannot be broken down further: The Higgs boson was the last elementary particle predicted by the standard model to be observed.
- quarksFundamental hadron components
- leptonsFundamental particles, not quarks
- fermionsHalf-spin matter constituents
- antimatterSubstance of antiparticles
- bosonsInteger-spin subatomic particles
positron · meson · neutrinos · standard model · subatomic particles · baryon · gluons · Higgs boson · electron · photon · collider · atom smasher · beta decay · CERN · accelerator · annihilation · smashing · charge
elementary particleshadrons
Quark-containing composite particles
molecules · atoms · baryons · atomic nuclei · protons
elementary particlesgalaxies
Gravitationally bound stellar assemblies
stars · planets · organisms · superclusters · everyday objects