preon
Sign in to saveIn 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.
~14 min read
Article
14 sectionsContents
- Goals of preon models
- Background
- Comparisons of quarks, leptons, and bosons
- Unresolved problems with the Standard Model
- Motivation for preon models
- Attempts
- Composite Higgs
- Rishon model
- Criticisms
- Mass paradox
- Conflicts with observed physics
- See also
- References
- Further reading
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.