Quarks

• Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig propose in 1964 that mesons and baryons are not elementary, but are composed of smaller constituents: Quarks

• James Joyce, Finnegan’s Wake: “Three quarks for Muster Mark.”

• u, d, and s quarks (up, down, strange)

• These quarks have spin 1/2, and have fractional electric charge (2/3, -1/3)

• Proton: u u d

• Neutron: u d d

• Pion: ud, uu - dd, du

• Kaon: us, ds, sd, su

• Not clear if this is a mathematical convenience, or reality

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