Leptons
About Leptons
Leptons are fundemental particles that do not feel the strong force. They only interact with other particles via the weak force (and a bit of the gravatational as well as the electromagnetic if its charged).
Types of Lepton
- Rest mass of 0.511 MeV
- Very stable and do not decay
- Life time of 66,000 Y-years
- Have the \(\micro\) symbol.
- Are negetively charged like electrons
- Basically "heavy electrons" with a rest mass of 105.7 MeV
- Decay into electrons
- Exist for about 2.2\(\micro\)s, however they travel so fast that they appear to exist for a much longer time.
The electron and muon leptons each come with their own neutrino. Due to them being:
- Not charged (neutral)
- Having very little mass
they dont do much. They only take part in weak interactions.
Lepton Number
| name | symbol | relative charge | L\(_{e}\) | L\(_{\micro}\) |
|-------------------|--------|-----------------|---|---|
| electron | \(e^-\) | -1 | +1 | 0 |
| electron neutrino | \(v_{e}\) | 0 | +1 | 0 |
| muon | \(\micro_{e}\) | -1 | 0 | +1 |
| muon neutrino | \(v_\micro\) | 0 | 0 | +1 |