Aug 6, 2024 04:00 PM
https://bigthink.com/hard-science/standa...s-leptons/
EXCERPTS: Currently, the patterns seen in the quarks and leptons remain unexplained, but given the lessons of history, it seems reasonable to hypothesize that quarks and leptons might themselves be created of still smaller particles. There is even a name for these as-yet-undiscovered and wholly hypothetical particles. They are called preons.
There are many different preon models, but none has been confirmed. Indeed, there are reasons to doubt the existence of preons.
The first reason is that the size of quarks and leptons has not been observed. That doesn’t mean that we know nothing. We have used the most powerful microscopes in attempts to image them. The smallest size that these microscopes can resolve is about 1/1000 the size of a proton. These measurements saw no size; therefore, we know that quarks and leptons must be smaller than about 10-18 meters. If preons are found inside quarks and leptons, they must be even smaller than that.
In addition, the laws of quantum mechanics pose a problem for objects of this size. [...] Given that the up quark has a mass of about 0.003 times that of a proton, we are left with the very perplexing situation in which an object with a mass of 0.003 times the proton contains within it at least one object with a mass of 1,000 times that of a proton.
This sounds nonsensical, but it’s not impossible. It could be that there is a large and negative energy tying together the preons. If that’s true, then the negative binding energy could cancel the large positive mass energy of the preons. But this is all speculation at this point. The whole preon idea could be wrong; indeed, the preon idea is not favored in the physics community.
However, the question of why there are patterns in the families of quarks and leptons remains a complete mystery... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: Currently, the patterns seen in the quarks and leptons remain unexplained, but given the lessons of history, it seems reasonable to hypothesize that quarks and leptons might themselves be created of still smaller particles. There is even a name for these as-yet-undiscovered and wholly hypothetical particles. They are called preons.
There are many different preon models, but none has been confirmed. Indeed, there are reasons to doubt the existence of preons.
The first reason is that the size of quarks and leptons has not been observed. That doesn’t mean that we know nothing. We have used the most powerful microscopes in attempts to image them. The smallest size that these microscopes can resolve is about 1/1000 the size of a proton. These measurements saw no size; therefore, we know that quarks and leptons must be smaller than about 10-18 meters. If preons are found inside quarks and leptons, they must be even smaller than that.
In addition, the laws of quantum mechanics pose a problem for objects of this size. [...] Given that the up quark has a mass of about 0.003 times that of a proton, we are left with the very perplexing situation in which an object with a mass of 0.003 times the proton contains within it at least one object with a mass of 1,000 times that of a proton.
This sounds nonsensical, but it’s not impossible. It could be that there is a large and negative energy tying together the preons. If that’s true, then the negative binding energy could cancel the large positive mass energy of the preons. But this is all speculation at this point. The whole preon idea could be wrong; indeed, the preon idea is not favored in the physics community.
However, the question of why there are patterns in the families of quarks and leptons remains a complete mystery... (MORE - missing details)