- Leptons are a group of elementary particles
- Leptons interact with other particles via the weak, gravitational or electromagnetic interactions
- Examples of leptons are:
- The electron, e–
- The electron neutrino, νe
- The muon, μ–
- The muon neutrino, νμ
They are much lighter than Baryons and Mesons and are not subject to the strong interaction.
There are six leptons in total, three of them are charged and three are uncharged.
The charged particles are electrons, muons and tauons.
The muon and tauon are similar to the electron but bigger.
The muon is about 200 times bigger than the electron and the tauon is 3500 times bigger .
Each of the charged leptons has its own neutrino. If a decay involves a neutrino and a muon, it will be a muon neutrino, not a tauon neutrino or electron neutrino.
The neutrino is a chargeless, almost massless particle. It is NOT affected by the strong interaction or the EM force and hardly at all by gravity. It is extremely difficult to detect.
