Physics

An alternative way to picture the standard model of particle

physics
The classic depiction of the fundamental constituents of matter fails to accurately represent their
relationships and what is missing – here’s how to do better

6 September 2023

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By Abigail Beall

MATTER FORCECARRIERS

Firstgeneration Secondgeneration Thirdgeneration

PHOTON
up charm toportruth

U000 †000
QUARKS

electromagnetism
down strange bottomorbeauty
BOSON
dooo S000 booo
WaZ
Increasingmass
weaknuclearforce

GLUON
electron muon tau

strongnuclearforce
LEPTONS

HIGGSBOSON
electron muon tau
neutrino neutrino neutrino
H
Ve V.T
massgiver

The standard model of particle physics is often illustrated as a simple grid showing
the 17 basic particles (shown above). But an alternative way of visualising it reveals
the complex rules that govern how the particles and forces interact.

This article is part of a special series on the standard model, in which we explore:

A brief history of the standard model, our theory of almost everything

 Six ways we could finally find new physics beyond the standard model

The conventional grid shows three generations of quarks (which feel the strong force)
and leptons (which don’t). Then there are the bosons that mediate three of the
fundamental forces of nature – the strong and weak nuclear forces and
electromagnetism. But it doesn’t give us the full picture.

For one, there are parts missing, like the fact that most particles can occur in two
forms of a property called handedness: right-handed and left-handed. It also tells us
nothing about which particles feel which forces. There are mysteries it glosses over,
too, like the fact there are no right-handed neutrinos, at least that we know of. “The
standard grid, as lovely as it is, looks finished,” says Chris Quigg, a theoretical
physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois. “But the standard
model is not finished.”

Lefthanded Righthanded

00
0

Higgs
boson

00
0

00
0

©Leptons Weakinteractions •---Stronginteractions

00©Quarks Higgsinteractions -Electromagnetic
interactions

Quigg thought we needed a new way to visualise the theory that reflected its
messiness. In 2005, he came up with his answer: the double simplex (shown above).
Made of two pyramids, linked by the Higgs boson, one half represents left-handed
particles and the other right-handed ones. Each pyramid vertex groups generations of
related particles together.

By using lines of di!erent colours, the double simplex shows how particles interact
through di!erent forces. The lack of right-handed neutrinos is shown by the smaller
number of particles in the right-handed pyramid. Here, too, you can see there are no
weak interactions inside each shell, meaning that right-handed quarks and leptons
can’t switch between di!erent flavours or generations. “The di!erence between left-
handed and right-handed particles is one of the big mysteries of the standard model,”
says Quigg. In the usual grid, these complexities are hidden, but the double simplex
celebrates them.