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hypothetical particle comparison table
Subject is not accelerated by is part of is a kind of has quantum behavior has acronym carries the force has spin has synonym has mass has definition has charge see also
axion  bosonBose-Einstein statistics  0 10-5 to 10-3 eVA hypothetical spin-0 particle with a very small mass of 10-5-10-3 eV. It was postulated in order to provide a natural solution to the "strong CP problem".  
dark matter dark halohypothetical particle    hidden mass Matter whose presence is inferred from dynamical measurements but which has no optical counterpart. The luminous regions of galaxies have mass-luminosity ratios of about 10. However, the mass-luminosity ratio in the outer halos of many spiral galaxies is 100 or more; one sees the brightness fall off with distance from the center of the galaxy but considerable mass is present. A similar situation prevails in galaxy clusters, where nonluminous matter must provide most of the self-gravitational attraction that holds the clusters together. The missing mass is not really missing; it is present but invisible (at least to current detectors). It is generally believed to consist either of the remnants of massive stars or of planetary-sized objects comparable in mass to Jupiter.  
glueball  hypothetical particle      Theoretical particles made exclusively of gluons. Tentative evidence of the existence of glueballs had been found in accelerator experiments by the mid-1980s.  
Goldstone boson  bosonBose-Einstein statistics  0  A massless spin-0 particle which arises whenever a (continuous) global symmetry is spontaneously broken.  
gravitino  hypothetical particle      Hypothetical force-carrying particles predicted by supersymmetry theories. The gravitino's spin would be 1/2. Its mass is unknown.  
gravitonelectric or magnetic fields hypothetical particleBose-Einstein statistics gravity2force carrier0The quanta thought to convey gravitational force; analogous to the photons, gluons, and intermediate vector bosons of electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces. Predicted by quantum theory of gravity, gravitons have not yet been detected.0 
Higgs boson  bosonBose-Einstein statistics  integral  A hypothetical, spinless particle that plays an important role in the Glashow-Weinberg-Salam electroweak theory (and in other theories involving spontaneous symmetry breaking, e.g. GUTs).  
magnetic monopole  hypothetical particle      has definition A hypothetical quantum object being a single, isolated magnetic pole. Normally, magnetic poles, the sources of a magnetic field, occur in pairs as north and south poles.  
parton  elementary particle      A hypothetical pointlike constituent of a nucleon, which contains all the charge of the nucleon.  
shadow matter  hypothetical particle      Theoretical classes of particles, their existence intimated by supersymmetry, theory, that participate in few if any of the four known fundamental forces. Planets, stars, and galaxies made of shadow matter could conceivably exist in the same space and time we occupy without our sensing their presence.  
sparticle  hypothetical particle      Hypothetical particle which is predicted by some Grand Unified Theories.  
superpartner  hypothetical particle      Particle whose spins differ by 1/2 unit and that are paired by supersymmetry.  
tachyon  hypothetical particle      Particle whose mass (squared) is negative; its presence in a theory generally yields inconsistencies.  
vector boson  hypothetical particleBose-Einstein statisticsIVBelectroweak force carrier A hypothetical elementary particle that acts as intermediary for the weak interaction, carrying its effect from one particle to another as the photon does for electromagnetic interactions and as various mesons do for the strong interactions. Weinberg-Salam theory

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