Physics:Charged particle

Short description: Physical particle with an electric charge

In physics, a charged particle is a particle with an electric charge. For example, some elementary particles, like the electron or quarks are charged. Some composite particles like protons are charged particles. An ion, such as a molecule or atom with a surplus or deficit of electrons relative to protons are also charged particles.

A plasma is a collection of charged particles, atomic nuclei and separated electrons, but can also be a gas containing a significant proportion of charged particles.

Charged particles are labeled as either positive (+) or negative (-). The designations are arbitrary. Nothing is inherent to a positively charged particle that makes it "positive", and the same goes for negatively charged particles.

Examples

Positively charged particles

• protons and atomic nuclei
• positrons (antielectrons)
• alpha particles
• positive charged pions
• cations

Negatively charged particles

• electrons
• antiprotons
• muons
• tauons
• negative charged pions
• anions

Particles with zero charge

• neutrons
• photons
• neutrinos
• neutral pions
• z boson
• higgs boson
• atoms

References

• "Ionizing radiation". http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/nuclear-engineering/22-01-introduction-to-ionizing-radiation-fall-2006/lecture-notes/energy_dep_hcp.pdf. 
• "Specific Ionization & LET". https://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/Specific_Ionization_&_LET.html. 
• "α입자와 물질과의 상호작용". 25 April 2012. http://spyeyez.tistory.com/16. 
• "7_1.3 The Bragg Curve". http://www.med.harvard.edu/jpnm/physics/nmltd/radprin/sect7/7.1/7_1.3.html. 
• "range | particle radiation". http://www.britannica.com/science/range-particle-radiation. 

External links

• Charged particle motion in E/B Field