quark model

American  

noun

Physics.

1. a scheme that explains the quantum numbers of all the baryons and mesons by assuming that baryons are composed of three quarks and mesons of a quark and an antiquark, with different combinations of quark and antiquark flavors giving different sets of quantum numbers.

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Example Sentences

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quark model

After the start of the 21st century, experiments began revealing many hadrons with unusual quantum properties that did not fit comfortably within the original quark model.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 2, 2026

"In the naïve quark model, there are three quarks inside a proton, but nothing else," said Tommy Tsang, formerly a postdoc at Kent State University, now at DOE's Argonne National Laboratory.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026

Although quarks have never been directly observed, several predictions of the quark model were quickly confirmed, and their properties explain all known hadron characteristics.

From Textbooks ● Aug. 12, 2015

“It's sort of like high-energy physics before the quark model came about,” he says.

From Nature ● Nov. 23, 2012

Perhaps the greatest milestone in this quest has been the quark model of matter.

From Time Magazine Archive