1) Particle accelerators are essential for creating and studying particles like quarks and
leptons. They help produce and understand quarks within composite particles (hadrons),
study the decay of unstable particles, and generate and observe leptons like muons and tau
particles. Also, physicists have experimentally confirmed the reality of the electroweak force
using particle accelerators.
2)
Force
Gravity
Major roles
Attracting matter on large scales (planets, stars, galaxies,
etc.)
Electromagnetic Holding atoms together; chemistry
Strong
Holding atomic nucleus together
Weak
Radioactive decay (e.g., neutron → proton)
Bosons
Graviton
Photon
Gluon
W and Z
bosons
3) While like charges repel, in atomic nuclei, the strong nuclear force overpowers the
electromagnetic force. This force, mediated by gluons, binds protons and neutrons together in
the nucleus. It's short-range and powerful enough to counteract the electromagnetic repulsion
between protons, keeping the nucleus stable.
4) The Higgs field plays a key role in the Standard Model. As particles move through space,
some of them interact with the Higgs field, giving them mass. Because particles have mass,
they must travel slower than the speed of light.
5) Matter-antimatter asymmetry refer to a mystery about a small imbalance: particles
outnumbered antiparticles by about one part in a billion. According to theories, matter and
antimatter should have been created in equal amounts during the Big Bang. However, they
annihilate each other upon contact, so if they were truly equal, they should have destroyed
each other, leaving no matter behind.