Along with leptons, quarks are basic building blocks of all matter. According to the standard model of particle physics, fermions (quarks and leptons) are the basic constituents of all matter. In the standard model there are six types of quarks and six types of leptons (the electron, the muon, tau particle and their respective neutrinos). All of these fundamental particles have corresponding antiparticles that have exactly the same mass but which carry an opposite charge. Fermions exist in three generations (mass and energy states). Protons, neutron and electrons are in the first generation of particles and the more massive and energetic particles of the second and third generations usually quickly decay into less-massive first generation particles.

Quarks are acted upon by the strong force and do not exist in isolation. The confinement of quarks dictates that quarks are found only in groups of three (baryons) or in quark...