Lesson plan
Preon
In particle physics, preons are hypothetical point particles, conceived of as sub-components of quarks and leptons. The word "preon" was coined by Jogesh Pati and Abdus Salam, in 1974. Interest in preon models peaked in the 1980s but has slowed, as the Standard Model of particle physics continues to describe physics mostly successfully, and no direct experimental evidence for lepton and quark compositeness has been found. Preons were postulated to come in four varieties: plus, anti-plus, zero, and anti-zero. W bosons have six preons, and quarks and leptons have only three. In the hadronic sector, some effects are considered anomalies within the Standard Model; for example, the proton spin puzzle, the EMC effect, the distributions of electric charges inside the nucleons, as found by Robert Hofstadter in 1956, and the ad hoc CKM matrix elements. When the term "preon" was coined, it was primarily to explain the two families of spin-1/2 fermions: quarks and leptons. More recent preon models also account for spin-1 bosons, and are still called "preons". Each of the preon models postulates a set of fewer fundamental particles than those of the Standard Model, together with the rules governing how those fundamental particles combine and interact.…
Article summary
In particle physics, preons are hypothetical point particles, conceived of as sub-components of quarks and leptons. The word "preon" was coined by Jogesh Pati and Abdus Salam, in 1974. Interest in preon models peaked in the 1980s but has slowed, as the Standard Model of particle physics continues to describe physics mostly successfully, and no direct experimental evidence for lepton and quark compositeness has been found. Preons were postulated to come in four varieties: plus, anti-plus, zero, and anti-zero. W bosons have six preons, and quarks and leptons have only three. In the hadronic sector, some effects are considered anomalies within the Standard Model; for example, the proton spin puzzle, the EMC effect, the distributions of electric charges inside the nucleons, as found by Robert Hofstadter in 1956, and the ad hoc CKM matrix elements. When the term "preon" was coined, it was primarily to explain the two families of spin-1/2 fermions: quarks and leptons. More recent preon models also account for spin-1 bosons, and are still called "preons". Each of the preon models postulates a set of fewer fundamental particles than those of the Standard Model, together with the rules governing how those fundamental particles combine and interact.…
Key claims
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.