Quarks

Quarks are tiny fundamental particles that join together to form protons and neutrons, the building blocks inside atomic nuclei.

Think of quarks as tiny ingredients that combine in different recipes. Three quarks make a proton or neutron, and quarks come in six types called flavors: up, down, strange, charm, top, and bottom.

Quarks are fundamental particles described by the Standard Model of particle physics. They carry a property called color charge and interact through the strong nuclear force, carried by particles called gluons. Quarks are normally confined inside larger particles: three quarks combine to form baryons such as protons and neutrons, while a quark and an antiquark form particles called mesons. The six quark flavors—up, down, strange, charm, top, and bottom—have different masses and behaviors. Ordinary matter is built mainly from up and down quarks.