![]() |
![]() |
What Is The World Made Of? : Lepton Decays The heavier leptons, the muon and tau, are not found in ordinary matter at all. This is because when they are produced they very quickly decay, or transform, into lighter leptons, and sometimes tau will decay into quarks, antiquarks, and a neutrino. Electrons and the three kinds of neutrinos are stable and thus the types we commonly see around us.
![]() When a heavy lepton decays, one of the particles it decays into is always its corresponding neutrino. The other particles could be a quark and its antiquark, or another lepton and its antineutrino. Physicists have observed that some types of lepton decays are possible and some are not. In order to explain this, they divided the leptons into three lepton families: the electron and its neutrino, the muon and its neutrino, and the tau and its neutrino. The total number of family members must always remain constant in a decay. Although leptons are solitary, they are always loyal to their families! |