All Particle Physics explained in 18 min using animations & Feynman diagrams

All Particle Physics explained in 18 min using animations & Feynman diagrams

0:00 – Intro & Fields

2:22 – Special offer

3:09 – Particles, charges, forces

6:32 – Recap

7:13 – Electromagnetism

10:04 – Weak force

12:19 – Strong force

16:53 – Higgs

If we generalize the concept of bosons interacting with particles, we can get all fundamental particle physics. Complex math, but physicist Richard Feynman came up with a simple way to view these interactions – Feynman diagrams.

The 12 fermions are depicted as straight lines with arrows in the diagrams. The arrows represent the “flow” of fermions. No two arrows point towards each other. If time is in the x direction, then fermion arrows going forwards are matter particles, and those going backwards, antimatter particles.

All 6 quarks have color charges. All particles with color charges interact with the strong nuclear force. Quarks also have an electric charge, so they also feel the electromagnetic force.

Leptons can be divided into the electron and its heavier cousins, the muon and tau particles. These all have electric charges but no color charges. Neutrinos do not have a color charge or an electric charge, so they are not affected by the strong and electromagnetic forces.

All fermions carry something called weak isospin. This can be thought of as the “charge” of the weak force. It can be +1/2 or -1/2. All fermions interact with the weak force. But weak isospin can also be -1, 0, and +1 – the W- boson has a weak isospin of -1, W+ has +1, Higgs has -1/2, and Z boson and photons have a weak isospin of 0. Note that this zero is not the same has having no isospin. Everything in the standard model has a weak isospin except gluons.