In order to understand the rest of this report, it is important to understand the standard model of physics that unifies the weak, strong, and electromagnetic forces. The standard model was devised in 1970 as a way to describe particles and how they interact. As you can see in Figure 1, there are many types of fermion matter. Quarks are the smallest particle found and are what matter (protons, neutrons, and therefore atoms) are composed of. There are six different types of quarks - up, down, charmed, strange, bottom, and top. Another fundamental force is the lepton, which like Quarks, has six different flavors. All of our ordinary matter is composed of Quarks and Leptons. (7)
Another aspect of the standard model is that for each particle composed of ordinary matter, there is another particle called an anti-matter particle. For example, the electron’s anti-particle is the positron. It looks identical to an electron, except the charge is positive rather than negative. Same thing for the protons and Quarks. When a particle interacts with its anti-particle, they annihilate each other. In labs, we have been able to crate antimatter, so we are absolutely sure that antimatter exists. (7)
As seen in Figure 1, there are three different types of particles in the standard model: the Fermions, Gauge Bosons, and the Higgs Boson. The Fermions are the matter particles that are composed of Quarks and Leptons such as electrons, protons, neutrons, and have 1/2 integer spins. The Gauge Bosons are the force carriers and therefore carry the fundamental forces of nature - except gravity (explained below). They are Bosons and therefore have integer spins such as 0. Finally, the Higgs Boson is the mass carrier and was recently found in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This particle had been theorized to exist for decades, but no one could find it. Finally, after using the LHC, astronomers were able to detect the Higgs. This detection is a strong indication that the standard model is correct. (7)
As I stated above, the standard model unifies the strong, weak, and electromagnetic forces, but it does not unify gravity. This is a problem because physicists are constantly looking for a unified theory, and right now, the standard model can not provide that. So, there is a possibility that the standard model is incorrect. But for now, the standard model perfectly describes and models everything we observe and create in labs. (7)