subatomic
121tau — /tow, taw/ for 1, 2, 4; /tahv, tawv/ for 3, n. 1. the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet (T). 2. the consonant sound represented by this letter. 3. tav. 4. Also, tauon. Physics. See tau lepton. [1250 1300; ME < L < Gk taû < Sem; cf. TAV] * * * …
122Higgs particle — or Higgs boson Carrier of an all pervading fundamental field (Higgs field) that is hypothesized as a means of endowing mass on some elementary particles through its interactions with them. It was named for Peter W. Higgs born 1929 of the… …
123fundamental interaction — In physics, the effect of any of the four fundamental forces gravitational, electromagnetic, strong, and weak. All known natural forces can be traced to these fundamental interactions. Gravitation is the attractive force between any two objects… …
124magnetic dipole — Tiny magnet with subatomic dimensions, equivalent to the flow of electric charge around a loop. Examples include electrons circulating around atomic nuclei, rotating atomic nuclei, and single subatomic particles with spin. On a large scale, these …
125Kendall, Henry Way — ▪ 2000 American nuclear physicist (b. Dec. 9, 1926, Boston, Mass. d. Feb. 15, 1999, near Tallahassee, Fla.), shared (with Jerome Isaac Friedman and Richard E. Taylor) the 1990 Nobel Prize for Physics for experiments confirming the existence …
126colliding-beam storage ring — ▪ device also called collider type of cyclic particle accelerator that stores and then accelerates two counterrotating beams of charged subatomic particles (subatomic particle) before bringing them into head on collision with each other.… …
127electron charge — ▪ physics (symbol e), fundamental physical constant expressing the naturally occurring unit of electric charge, equal to 1.6021892 × 10−19 coulomb, or 4.80325 × 10−10 electrostatic unit (esu, or statcoulomb). In addition to the electron,… …
128Hooft, Gerardus 't — ▪ Dutch physicist born July 5, 1946, Den Helder, Neth. Dutch physicist, corecipient with Martinus J.G. Veltman (Veltman, Martinus J.G.) of the 1999 Nobel Prize for Physics for their development of a mathematical model that enabled… …
