| Composition | elementary particle |
|---|---|
| Statistics | fermionic |
| Family | quark |
| Generation | first |
| Interactions | strong, weak, electromagnetic, gravity |
| Symbol | u |
| Antiparticle | up antiquark ( u ) |
| Theorized | Murray Gell-Mann (1964) George Zweig (1964) |
| Discovered | SLAC (1968) |
| Mass | 2.2+0.5 −0.4 MeV/c2[1] |
| Decays into | stable or down quark + positron + electron neutrino |
| Electric charge | +2/3 e |
| Color charge | Yes |
| Spin | 1/2 ħ |
| Weak isospin | LH: +1/2, RH: 0 |
| Weak hypercharge | LH: +1/3, RH: +4/3 |
The up quark or u quark (symbol: u) is the lightest of all quarks, a type of elementary particle, and a significant constituent of matter. It, along with the down quark, forms the neutrons (one up quark, two down quarks) and protons (two up quarks, one down quark) of atomic nuclei. It is part of the first generation of matter, has an electric charge of +2/3 e and a bare mass of 2.2+0.5
−0.4 MeV/c2.[1] Like all quarks, the up quark is an elementary fermion with spin 1/2, and experiences all four fundamental interactions: gravitation, electromagnetism, weak interactions, and strong interactions. The antiparticle of the up quark is the up antiquark (sometimes called antiup quark or simply antiup), which differs from it only in that some of its properties, such as charge have equal magnitude but opposite sign.
Its existence (along with that of the down and strange quarks) was postulated in 1964 by Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig to explain the Eightfold Way classification scheme of hadrons. The up quark was first observed by experiments at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in 1968.