What are the Different Kinds of Subatomic Particles?
There are two main categories of subatomic particles – fermions and bosons. Fermions are the particles we think of as “stuff” – leptons like the electron, neutrino, and cousins, and quarks like the up quark and others in its sizable family. Gauge bosons are the particles that mediate the four fundamental forces of nature – the weak and strong nuclear forces, electromagnetism, and gravity. These include the familiar photon, and its far less-frequently-seen cousins, the W and Z bosons, gluons, and (physicists expect) the graviton, the much-sought-after particle thought to mediate gravitational interactions. It is important to understand the difference between subatomic particles and fundamental particles. Fundamental means that the particle has no smaller constituents; it is fundamental. Not all subatomic particles are fundamental, though all known fundamental particles are subatomic, meaning smaller than atoms. For example, protons and neutrons, subatomic particles that make up the atom
