ASPhysicsCIEExam Questions11. Particle Physics11.2 Fundamental Particles

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First teaching 2023

First exams 2025

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Fundamental Particles (CIE AS Physics)

Exam Questions

47 mins25 questions

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11.2 Fundamental Particles

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11.2 Fundamental Particles

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1a
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A student is listing the flavours of quarks they can recall from memory. Their list is below:

  • Bottom
  • Strange
  • Down

Name the flavours of quarks missing from their list.

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1b
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Complete Table 1.1 below. The right hand column is in units of the elementary charge, e.

Table 1.1

Quark Flavour Charge / e
Strange  
Charm  
Down  
Top  

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1c
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Explain why a proton is not a fundamental particle.

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1d
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Describe the difference between quarks and antiquarks.

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2a
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State the particles that form a meson.

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2b
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A student proposes an undiscovered baryon with the following structure:

tt top enclose straight b

State whether it is possible for this baryon to exist.

Explain your answer.

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2c
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Describe the changes to a proton's quark composition when it undergoes beta plus decay.

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2d
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Show that an anti-proton has a relative charge of −e, where e  is the elementary charge, using its quark composition.

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1a
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Carbon–10 open parentheses straight C presubscript 6 presuperscript 10 close parentheses is an isotope that decays to an isotope of boron (symbol straight B) by the emission of a β+ particle. 

(i)
Complete the nuclear equation for this decay, including the proton and nucleon numbers of all the particles involved.
straight C presubscript 6 presuperscript 10 space space space rightwards arrow space
[3] 
(ii)
During the decay, a quark in the carbon-10 nucleus changes into a different type.
 
State the change of quark that occurs.
[1]

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1b
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State the two leptons in this decay.

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1c
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State and explain why a hadron with charge –3e cannot exist. 

e is the elementary charge.

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1d
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State the possible quark combination for a hadron of charge +2e.

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2a
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State the quark composition of an alpha particle.

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2b
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Use the quark model to show that the charge on the anti-neutron is 0.

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2c
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A sigma baryon Σ is a hadron that consists of an up (u) quark, a down (d) quark and a strange (s) quark. 

State the quark composition of Σ+ , Σ0 and Σ– .

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2d
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Explain why a baryon with the quark composition u d with bar on top s cannot exist.

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3a
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State the number of 'up' quarks in the nucleus of Al presubscript 13 presuperscript 27.

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3b
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The straight D particle has a quark structure u c with bar on top .

Determine

 
(i)
the classification of the D particle,
[1]
(ii)
the charge on the straight D particle.
[1]

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3c
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Using the quark model, show that the magnitude of the charge of a proton is equal to the charge of an electron. 

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3d
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Using the quark model for β+ decay, show that charge is conserved in this decay.

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