standard model

Standard Model,

in physics: see elementary particles.

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Standard model

The theory that explains the three major interactions of elementary particle physics—the strong interaction responsible for nuclear forces, the weak interaction responsible for radioactive decay, and the electromagnetic interaction—in terms of a common physical picture. The model for this picture is quantum electrodynamics, the fundamental theory underlying electromagnetism. In that theory, electrons, viewed as structureless elementary constituents of matter, interact with photons, structureless elementary particles of light. The standard model extends quantum electrodynamics to explain all three interactions of subnuclear physics in terms of similar basic constituents. See Electron, Electroweak interaction, Elementary particle, Light, Photon, Quantum chromodynamics, Quantum electrodynamics, Strong nuclear interactions, Weak nuclear interactions

McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Physics. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

standard model

The accepted but possibly incomplete theoretical framework for describing something such as the origin of the Universe, the processes in the interior of the Sun, or the interactions of elementary particles.

Collins Dictionary of Astronomy © Market House Books Ltd, 2006

standard model

[′stan·dərd ′mäd·əl]

(particle physics)

The modern theory of the interactions of elementary particles, comprising the Weinberg-Salam theory and quantum chromodynamics.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.