Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
antiquark
References
Images
Simple diagrams of protons, neutrons, and pions display yellow quark and green antiquark spheres connected by purple ribbon-like gluons, illustrating the internal structure of these atomic particles. hadrons from quark and antiquark combinations
Britannica AI Icon

antiquark

physics
Written by
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of  Encyclopædia Britannica, and create and manage the relationships between them.
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last updated

Quick Summary

Simple diagrams of protons, neutrons, and pions display yellow quark and green antiquark spheres connected by purple ribbon-like gluons, illustrating the internal structure of these atomic particles.
protons, neutrons, pions, and other hadrons Very simplified illustrations of protons, neutrons, pions, and other hadrons show that they are made of quarks (yellow spheres) and antiquarks (green spheres), which are bound together by gluons (bent ribbons).

An antiquark is the antiparticle of a quark. Quarks and antiquarks are fundamental particles that combine to form hadrons, such as protons and neutrons. There are six types, or "flavours," of quarks: up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom. Each quark has a corresponding antiquark with opposite charges. For example, an up quark has a charge of +2/3 e, while an up antiquark has a charge of -2/3 e. Protons are made of two up quarks and one down quark, while neutrons are made of one up quark and two down quarks. Antiquarks are not directly observable as they are always found in combination with quarks.1234

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
4 Britannica Sources
  1. antiquark
  2. subatomic particle - Quarks and antiquarks
  3. physics - Particle physics
  4. quark

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.