Eli5: How do we know that quarks are fundamental particles, made up of nothing else?

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We used to think that atoms were the fundamental particles, made up of nothing smaller, but then we discovered the concept of sub-atomic particles who themselves were now fundamental, but now it has been concluded that quarks make up all of these and they themselves are indivisible. Each time we were wrong and the particles could be broken up smaller and smaller, how do we know this time for sure that quarks are fundamentak?

In: Physics

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

We don’t know for sure, it’s just that for now we have not discovered anything different. As any scientific theory, the framework behind the standard model (which includes quarks) is valid until we find a way to demonstrate that it is false.    

At the moment we still don’t have any proof of Beyond Standard Model physics even if we’re actively trying to expand it and test it through experimental (higher energy collisions, large environmental detectors) and theoretical means (QG, string theory, automata,…).    

So quarks as fundamental particles are a good description of reality (for now).

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