up quark

noun

Physics.

1. the quark having electric charge 2/3 times the elementary charge and strangeness and charm equal to 0.

up quark

1. A quark with a charge of +2/3. Its mass is approximately 10 times the electron mass and is the least mass of all quarks.

2. See Table at subatomic particle

Word History and Origins

Origin of up quark¹

First recorded in 1975–80

Example Sentences

Lambda particles are baryons, which means they’re a type of hadron made of three quarks: one up quark, one down quark and one strange quark.

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For instance, the electron has heavier versions called muons and taus, the up quark has heavier relatives named charm and top quarks, and the down quark is followed by strange and beauty quarks.

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Physicists are also reassessing particle flavor, a quantum property that defines the species of fermion: up quark, down quark, electron, muon, and so on.

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A beam of positive pions—lightweight particles made from an up quark and a down antiquark—decay into muons and muon neutrinos.

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The first family comprises three charged particles — the up quark, the down quark and the electron — and a neutral particle called the electron neutrino.

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