Particle Physics

Fundamental Fields

There are four fundamental fields that fill the universe. An excitation of a field is called a particle. The spin of a particle is a measure of its intrinsic angular momentum.

Higgs

The Higgs field gives particles their mass in much the same way as the spin field imparts angular momentum.

Darill

It would not be altogether inaccurate to consider the darill as the fundamental particle. Darill form all non-fundamental particles and are the main topic of this work.

Spin Field

The spin field gives particles their spin. Different values of spin are due to different coupling strengths between the spin field and any other given field.

Gravity

Gravity is mediated by the graviton.

Behaviour at Different Scales

Small Scale

The dynamics of individual darill are poorly understood. On the smallest scale, they display chaotic behaviour, interacting with gravity and with themselves.

Medium Scale

What we call reality is an emergent phenomenon. An analogy can be drawn with water waves on the ocean. A wave is made of particles, but the structure itself comes from bulk movement. A wave can move across the entire Pacific; its component molecules move only a short distance. Darill act the same way.

On this scale, the collective behaviour of darill can be treated as if they formed (quasi-)particles or complices (singular: complex). Any specific darill will only be involved momentarily. However, it is useful to model this complex as containing a certain number of valence darill. They each have a positive (+1, ↑) or negative (-1, ↓) intrinsic charge, which manifests as induced charge under specific circumstances.

Interactions

There are three interactions that only couple with darill when they form complexes. These are the electromagnetic, the strong and the weak forces. They are each mediated by quasiparticles.

For the electromagnetic and strong forces, the induced charge is the product of the intrinsic charge and a given force constant. Particles can only move freely if they have values of induced charge equal to an integer multiple of their quanta (singular: quantum).

Electromagnetism

When the electromagnetic force interacts with a complex, it induces an electric charge of ⅙ of the intrinsic charge.

Strong force

When the strong force interacts with a complex, it induces a color charge of ⅓ of the intrinsic charge.

Weak force

The weak force is involved in rearranging darill. There are a number of types of charge that can be induced under this interaction, some of which can also be induced even in non-valence darill. They are heavily dependent on the circumstances, and are not easily calculated as they are not necessarily proportional to intrinsic charge. The mechanics of the weak force on darill are thereby beyond the scope of this work.

Particles

Fermions and Bosons

A particle with integer spin (0, 1, 2…) is a boson, while a particle with half-integer spin (½, 3/2, 5/2…) is a fermion. Two fermions cannot occupy the same state, but the same is not true of bosons.

Matter and Antimatter

Two particles of identical mass with properties of the opposite sign are antiparticles. For instance, a particle with +1 charge will have an antiparticle with -1 charge. Uncharged particles may have antiparticles if they have other properties with opposite sign, or they may be their own antiparticles.

Of a particle-antiparticle pair, one is arbitrarily labelled as matter, the other antimatter. In this document, antimatter particles have the prefix anti-, and appear with an overline (◌).

Generations

Doublets

A pair of darill form a neutrino (ν). These only interact with gravity and the weak force. Neutrinos are massless, and are their own antiparticle.

Triplets

Halvons

Three darill of the same charge, (↑↑↑) or (↓↓↓), form a halvon. Particles involving a halvon interact with the electromagnetic force.

Grains

Three darill of different charges, (↑↑↓) or (↓↓↑), form a grain. Particles involving a grain interact with the strong force.

Hextuples

Hextuples consist of two triplets.

Charged Leptons

The charged leptons have spin ½, electric charge ±1, and color charge 0.

Photons

The photon is its own antiparticle. It has no mass and no charge. It is the carrier for the electromagnetic force.

Quarks

Quarks have spin ½ and color charge ±⅓. Large quarks have electric charge ±⅔ and small quarks have electric charge ±⅓.

Gluons

Gluons have electric charge 0 and overall color charge 0. Within a nucleon they carry the strong force, and tend to act as two separate halvons, one positive and one negative.

A free-moving neutrino can spontaneously become a gluon, but this state is short-lived. This gives the neutrino its apparent mass, and allows for neutrino oscillation.

Bigrains

Bigrains have electric charge 0 and color charge ∓⅓. As they have non-integer color charge, they cannot be found moving freely, and are thus only found within nucleons.

Massive gauge bosons

These are very unstable particles. Over such a short lifetime, the grain pair can spontaneously become a pair of free darill.

These bosons mediate the weak force, which allows for shuffling of darill. The bosons on the middle row are lighter than the others, and mediate flavour-changing interactions. The heaviest bosons are virtually never found under standard conditions, but at a high enough energy scale, mediate interactions in which quarks can become leptons and vice versa.

Large Scale

Only about 15% of darill can be found forming quasiparticles at any one time. The rest do not interact via the electromagnetic or strong forces, and so are called “dark” matter. Gravity is the dominant force at these scales, as it is the only long-range force that interacts with the darill sea.