THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE UNIVERSE

 

Atoms are supposedly the building blocks of the universe, and that isn’t not true. But, there are more intricate systems in place behind the seeming simplicity of an atom, as well as the universe surrounding us, that are considered to be the true building blocks of the universe. 

(Figure 1: The Standard Model)

Named somewhat terribly, the Standard Model (for from standard) as pictured above in Figure 1 consists of the components that make up atoms and other forces. For example, the more well-known particles like photons and electrons are in the Standard Model under different sections. The Standard Model is split into two main sections; the Fermions and the Bosons. 

Fermions

The particles in the purple section are labeled as quarks, these quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, specifically the up and down quarks. They come in pairs of two: Up/Down, Charm/Strange, Top/Bottom. An important thing to remember is that quarks constitute all matter. 

Leptons are elementary particles which means they do not appear to be made up of smaller units of matter. Leptons can either carry one unit of electric charge or be neutral. The charged leptons are the electrons, muons, and taus, and the neutral leptons are known as neutrinos. 

Boson

A boson is a subatomic particle that has an integer spin value (like 0, 1, 2, etc.), meaning its angular momentum is a whole number, which differentiates it from fermions that have half-integer spins. They are often considered the particles that carry forces, like photons and gluons (strong nuclear force carriers) being prominent examples. Bosons keep the universe exciting, and are imperative to keep things the same as we see the universe today. The most important one of these is known as the Higgs Boson, named after Philips Higgs. The Higgs Boson is the proof of existence of the Higgs Field. The Higgs Field can be imagined as a force field that covers the entire universe. When particles like electrons or quarks interact (exist) in this field, they gain mass. In summary, this means that if the Higgs Field did not exist, nothing else would. There would be no mass, so no physicality to the particles that make up this universe.This particle was theorised to exist in 1994, and was confirmed at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland in 2014.

Many of the particles on the Standard Model started as little theories, but with billion dollar particle accelerators around the world, most of them have been proven and disproven.

The Standard Model is a very useful model, helping physicists place the different quantum particles in a handy table but, there are many holes. The Standard Model theory does not include gravity, the fourth fundamental force, and does not do well to explain why gravity is so weak.

There also are many contradictions the Standard Model makes when applied to the theory of General Relativity, the idea theorised by Einstein. They use different mathematical frameworks, with the Standard Model describing the quantum world of particles at very small scales, while General Relativity describes gravity on a much larger scale, leading to difficulties when trying to combine them, particularly in extreme conditions like black hole singularities. In quantum mechanics, particles exist in multiple states simultaneously, which creates problems when trying to apply this concept to the smooth spacetime of General Relativity. There are many more inconsistencies that appear with the application of both General Relativity and the Standard Model. 

The Standard Model also lacks the explanation of dark energy, which makes up 68% of the universe, lacking the room for the fundamental particles which it could consist of. 

So while yes, the Standard Model is amazingly useful to the world of particle physics, it is not complete, and maybe not the best way we can present these fundamental particles. There remains to be seen a better way, and some physicists even hope for the Theory Of Everything. This God Theory or the Theory of Everything, is a theory theorized to exist (ha), in which it will explain everything from quantum physics to general relativity nicely and neatly. It is this blogger’s opinion that this theory will take quite some time to come about, and that only as humanity’s technology improves, so can the theories which constitute the universe. 

A great place to do more research into a topic like this is any government certified website, or youtube. I also advise to not take my words as your only source of information, please cross reference all information, and leave a comment if you believe something was incorrectly stated. Thank You for taking the time to read this blog, and supporting my adventure into science and maths.