top quark

American  

noun

Physics.

1. a heavy quark having electric charge 2/3 times the elementary charge.

---

top quark Scientific  

/ tŏp /

1. 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.

2. See Table at subatomic particle

---

Etymology

Origin of top quark

First recorded in 1975–80

Example Sentences

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

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

At that point it could produce pairs of Higgs bosons and allow researchers to explore how the Higgs couples to itself and also interacts with the heaviest particle of matter, the top quark.

From Nature • Aug. 29, 2012

Assuming Fermilab has indeed found the top quark, what is left for high-energy physics?

From Scientific American • Sep. 29, 2011