Every quark, lepton and boson in the Standard Model, and how they relate. Click any particle to fly in and read its card.Tap the chart to explore it up close.
Designed with all the details
This poster is designed to be the “Periodic Table of Fundamental Particles.” The goal is to show all of the particles and help indicate how they relate to each other. Just like the Periodic Table of Elements doesn’t teach all of chemistry, this doesn’t teach all of the Standard Model, but it gives a broad map of key relationships and principles to build from.
01Forces
Across the top: electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force and the strong nuclear force. Each one is shown with its symmetry, the charge it acts on, how far it reaches and the theory that describes it.
Colored lines run from each force down to the particles it acts on. Not every particle feels every force, and the lines show which do.
02Bosons
The mediators of the forces: eight gluons, the W and Z bosons, the photon and the Higgs boson. Each is shown with its mass, charge, spin, how common it is and how long it lasts.
03Fermions
Fermions are the building blocks of matter. The six flavors of quark (up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom) each get a card with mass, electric charge, spin, chirality, weak isospin and color charge.
Every particle sits directly above its antiparticle, so the chart reads as matter on top and antimatter below.
04Fermions
The electron, muon and tau, and a neutrino for each. Neutrinos barely interact with anything. Each flavor is a quantum mix of three tiny masses, so a neutrino can change flavor as it travels.
05Building blocks
Quarks bound by the strong force make hadrons. Protons and neutrons, the most familiar ones, form the nuclei of atoms, and electrons around those nuclei complete the atom.
This corner bridges the quantum scale and the everyday one: the particles above become the molecules, materials and, eventually, the world around us.
The poster
Three feet wide, so every card is readable from across the room and the details reward a closer look.
My background is in design, and I’ve always admired those who grasp the intricate math behind quantum mechanics. In another universe, I’d like to think I pursued physics and made meaningful contributions to its advancement. In this universe, I wanted to contribute in the best way I could: by visualizing the relationships between fundamental particles.
I’m not a particle physicist, so if you spot any errors or have suggestions for improvement, I’d greatly appreciate your input.
Riley Adamson · Salt Lake City, Utah · rileyadamson.com