Re: quark families

From: alistair (alistair_at_goforit64.fsnet.co.uk)
Date: 07/19/04 

Date: 19 Jul 2004 04:08:53 -0400

Ulmo said:
> the stable quarks are the lightest quarks

Alistair says:

The stable quarks are the lightest known quarks.
Other known quarks can yield the stable quarks.
But if a new stable quark existed with a mass just above the
mass of a down quark, would it be stable?
It would not experience the weak force because if
it did then a new neutrino would be associated with it
and this would increase the rate of decay of the z boson,
and would be at odds with observational evidence.
But this absence of the weak interaction would explain
why other known quarks don't become the new stable quark.