Subatomic particle

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In physics, a subatomic particle is a particle smaller than an atom. According to the Standard Model of particle physics, a subatomic particle can be a composite particle or an elementary particle. A composite particle, such as a proton or a neutron, is composed of other particles, while an elementary particle, such as an electron, is not composed of any substructure. Particle physics and nuclear physics study these particles and how they interact. Most force-carrying particles are called bosons. Some bosons, such as photons and gluons, have zero rest mass, whereas others, such as the W and Z bosons and the Higgs boson, possess relatively large rest masses (approximately 80 GeV/c2, 90 GeV/c2, and 125 GeV/c2 respectively). This contrasts with fermions, which are matter particles that possess rest mass and obey the Pauli exclusion principle. Experiments show that light can behave like a stream of particles (called photons) as well as exhibiting wave-like properties. This led to the concept...

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