Lepton
- A lepton (λεπτο) is also €0.01 in Greek. See: Greek euro coins.
A lepton (Greek for "light", as opposed to hadrons which are "heavy") is a subatomic particle that is not made of quarks.
There are 12 known types of lepton, 3 of which are matter particles (the electron, the muon and the tauon), 3 corresponding neutrinos, and their 6 respective antiparticles. All known charged leptons have a single negative or positive electric charge (depending on whether they are particles or antiparticles) and all of the neutrinos and antineutrinos have neutral electric charge.
A table of the leptons
| Charged particle / antiparticle
|
| Neutrino / antineutrino
|
| Name
| Symbol
| Electric charge
| Mass(GeV)
|
| Name
| Symbol
| Electric charge
| Mass(GeV)
|
| Electron / Antielectron (positron)
| <math>e^- \, / \, e^+<math>
| −1 / +1
| 0.000511
|
| Electron neutrino / Electron antineutrino
| <math>\nu_e \, / \, \overline{\nu_e}<math>
| 0
| ~0
|
| Muon / Anti-muon
| <math>\mu^- \, / \, \mu^+ <math>
| −1 / +1
| 0.1056
|
| Muon neutrino / Muon antineutrino
| <math>\nu_\mu \, / \, \overline{\nu_\mu}<math>
| 0
| ~0
|
| Tauon / Anti-tauon
| <math>\tau^- \, / \, \tau^+<math>
| −1 / +1
| 1.777
|
| Tau neutrino / Tau antineutrino
| <math>\nu_\tau \, / \, \overline{\nu_\tau}<math>
| 0
| ~0
|
See also
