Leptons
Leptons are a family of particles that 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 roughly 200 times bigger and the tauon is 3500 times bigger (twice the size of a proton).
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 isn’t affected by the strong interaction or EM force and barely by gravity. It is almost impossible to detect.
| Lepton | Charge | Lepton Number (L) | Anti Lepton | Charge | Lepton Number (L) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electron | e- | -1 | +1 | Anti Electron | e+ | +1 | -1 | |
| Electron Neutrino | νe | 0 | +1 | Anti Electron Neutrino | ν̄e | 0 | -1 | |
| Muon | μ- | -1 | +1 | Anti Muon | μ+ | +1 | -1 | |
| Muon Neutrino | νμ | 0 | +1 | Anti Muon Neutrino | ν̄μ | 0 | -1 | |
| Tauon | τ- | -1 | +1 | Anti Tauon | τ+ | +1 | -1 | |
| Tauon Neutrino | ντ | 0 | +1 | Anti Tauon Neutrino | ν̄τ | 0 | -1 |