top quark
Americannoun
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A quark with a charge of +2/3. Its mass is larger than that of all the other quarks and is about 360,000 times that of the electron.
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See Table at subatomic particle
Etymology
Origin of top quark
First recorded in 1975–80
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Two sets of similar but heavier particles can pop into brief existence: the muon, muon neutrino, charm quark, and strange quark; and the tau, tau neutrino, top quark, and bottom quark.
From Science Magazine ● Mar. 27, 2024
“Without Veltman’s and ’t Hooft’s work, discovery of the top quark would have been impossible,” Homer A. Neal, a physicist at the University of Michigan, said at the time the Nobel was awarded in 1999.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 8, 2021
In June, researchers revealed that they had also seen the Higgs interact with the top quark.
From Nature ● Sep. 4, 2018
Tevatron researchers discovered the top quark, another subatomic particle, and helped lay the groundwork for CERN’s discovery of the Higgs boson.
From New York Times ● May 28, 2018
For two decades, the top quark has been one of the Holy Grails of high-energy physics.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 29, 2011
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
