Timeline of particle discoveries - wikipedia Timeline of particle discoveries This is a timeline of subatomic particle discoveries, including all particles thus far discovered which appear to be elementary ( that is, indivisible ) given the best available evidence. It also includes the discovery of composite particles and antiparticles that were of particular historical importance. More specifically, the inclusion criteria are : Elementary particles from the Standard Model of particle physics that have so far been observed. The Standard Model is the most comprehensive existing model of particle behavior. All Standard Model particles including the Higgs boson have been verified, and all other observed particles are combinations of two or more Standard Model particles. Antiparticles which were historically important to the development of particle physics, specifically the positron and antiproton. The discovery of these particles required very different experimental methods from that of their ordinary matter counterparts, and provided evidence that all particles had antiparticles -- an idea that is fundamental to quantum field theory, the modern mathematical framework for particle physics. In the case of most subsequent particle discoveries, the particle and its anti-particle were discovered essentially simultaneously. Composite particles which were the first particle discovered containing a particular elementary constituent, or whose discovery was critical to the understanding of particle physics. Time Event 1800 William Herschel discovers `` heat rays '' 1801 Johann Wilhelm Ritter made the hallmark observation that invisible rays just beyond the violet end of the visible spectrum were especially effective at lightening silver chloride - soaked paper. He called them `` oxidizing rays '' to emphasize chemical reactivity and to distinguish them from `` heat rays '' at the other end of the invisible spectrum ( both of which were later determined to be photons ). The more general term `` chemical rays '' was adopted shortly thereafter to describe the oxidizing rays, and it remained popular throughout the 19th century. The terms chemical and heat rays were eventually dropped in favor of ultraviolet and infrared radiation, respectively. 1895 Discovery of the ultraviolet radiation below 200 nm, named vacuum ultraviolet ( later identified as photons ) because it is strongly absorbed by air, by the German physicist Victor Schumann 1895 X-ray produced by Wilhelm Röntgen ( later identified as photons ) 1897 Electron discovered by J.J. Thomson 1899 Alpha particle discovered by Ernest Rutherford in uranium radiation 1900 Gamma ray ( a high - energy photon ) discovered by Paul Villard in uranium decay 1911 Atomic nucleus identified by Ernest Rutherford, based on scattering observed by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden 1919 Proton discovered by Ernest Rutherford 1931 Deuteron discovered by Harold Urey ( predicted by Rutherford in 1920 ) 1932 Neutron discovered by James Chadwick ( predicted by Rutherford in 1920 ) Main article : Discovery of the neutron 1932 Antielectron ( or positron ), the first antiparticle, discovered by Carl D. Anderson ( proposed by Paul Dirac in 1927 and by Ettore Majorana in 1928 ) 1937 Muon ( or mu lepton ) discovered by Seth Neddermeyer, Carl D. Anderson, J.C. Street, and E.C. Stevenson, using cloud chamber measurements of cosmic rays ( it was mistaken for the pion until 1947 ) 1947 Pion ( or pi meson ) discovered by C.F. Powell 's group, including César Lattes ( first author ) and Giuseppe Occhialini ( predicted by Hideki Yukawa in 1935 ) 1947 Kaon ( or K meson ), the first strange particle, discovered by George Dixon Rochester and Clifford Charles Butler 1950 Λ ( or lamda baryon ) discovered during a study of cosmic - ray interactions 1955 Antiproton discovered by Owen Chamberlain, Emilio Segrè, Clyde Wiegand, and Thomas Ypsilantis 1956 Electron antineutrino detected by Frederick Reines and Clyde Cowan ( proposed by Wolfgang Pauli in 1930 to explain the apparent violation of conservation of energy in beta decay ) At the time it was simply referred to as neutrino since there was only one known neutrino. 1962 Muon neutrino ( or mu neutrino ) shown to be distinct from the electron neutrino by a group headed by Leon Lederman 1964 Xi baryon discovery at Brookhaven National Laboratory 1969 Partons ( internal constituents of hadrons ) observed in deep inelastic scattering experiments between protons and electrons at SLAC ; this was eventually associated with the quark model ( predicted by Murray Gell - Mann and George Zweig in 1964 ) and thus constitutes the discovery of the up quark, down quark, and strange quark. J / ψ meson discovered by groups headed by Burton Richter and Samuel Ting, demonstrating the existence of the charm quark ( proposed by James Bjorken and Sheldon Lee Glashow in 1964 ) Tau discovered by a group headed by Martin Perl 1977 Upsilon meson discovered at Fermilab, demonstrating the existence of the bottom quark ( proposed by Kobayashi and Maskawa in 1973 ) 1979 Gluon observed indirectly in three - jet events at DESY W and Z bosons discovered by Carlo Rubbia, Simon van der Meer, and the CERN UA1 collaboration ( predicted in detail by Sheldon Glashow, Mohammad Abdus Salam, and Steven Weinberg ) 1995 Top quark discovered at Fermilab 1995 Antihydrogen produced and measured by the LEAR experiment at CERN 2000 Tau neutrino first observed directly at Fermilab 2011 Antihelium - 4 produced and measured by the STAR detector ; the first particle to be discovered by the experiment 2012 A particle exhibiting most of the predicted characteristics of the Higgs boson discovered by researchers conducting the Compact Muon Solenoid and ATLAS experiments at CERN 's Large Hadron Collider See also Physics portal List of baryons List of mesons List of particles References Jump up ^ Hockberger, P.E. 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Physical Review. 71 ( 3 ) : 209 -- 210. Bibcode : 1947PhRv... 71... 209C. doi : 10.1103 / PhysRev. 71.209. Jump up ^ H. Yukawa ( 1935 ). `` On the Interaction of Elementary Particles ''. Proceedings of the Physico - Mathematical Society of Japan. 17 : 48. Jump up ^ G.D. Rochester ; C.C. Butler ( 1947 ). `` Evidence for the Existence of New Unstable Elementary Particles ''. Nature. 160 ( 4077 ) : 855 -- 857. Bibcode : 1947Natur. 160... 855R. doi : 10.1038 / 160855a0. Jump up ^ The Strange Quark Jump up ^ O. Chamberlain ; E. Segrè ; C. Wiegand ; T. Ypsilantis ( 1955 ). `` Observation of Antiprotons ''. Physical Review. 100 ( 3 ) : 947 -- 950. Bibcode : 1955PhRv... 100... 947C. doi : 10.1103 / PhysRev. 100.947. Jump up ^ F. Reines ; C.L. Cowan ( 1956 ). `` The Neutrino ''. Nature. 178 ( 4531 ) : 446 -- 449. Bibcode : 1956Natur. 178... 446R. doi : 10.1038 / 178446a0. Jump up ^ G. Danby ; et al. ( 1962 ). `` Observation of High - Energy Neutrino Reactions and the Existence of Two Kinds of Neutrinos ''. Physical Review Letters. 9 ( 1 ) : 36 -- 44. Bibcode : 1962PhRvL... 9... 36D. doi : 10.1103 / PhysRevLett. 9.36. Jump up ^ R. Nave. `` The Xi Baryon ''. Hyperphysics. Retrieved 20 June 2009. Jump up ^ E.D. Bloom ; et al. ( 1969 ). `` High - Energy Inelastic e -- p Scattering at 6 ° and 10 ° ''. Physical Review Letters. 23 ( 16 ) : 930 -- 934. Bibcode : 1969PhRvL... 23... 930B. doi : 10.1103 / PhysRevLett. 23.930. Jump up ^ M. Breidenbach ; et al. ( 1969 ). `` Observed Behavior of Highly Inelastic Electron - Proton Scattering ''. Physical Review Letters. 23 ( 16 ) : 935 -- 939. Bibcode : 1969PhRvL... 23... 935B. doi : 10.1103 / PhysRevLett. 23.935. Jump up ^ J.J. Aubert ; et al. ( 1974 ). `` Experimental Observation of a Heavy Particle J ''. Physical Review Letters. 33 ( 23 ) : 1404 -- 1406. Bibcode : 1974PhRvL... 33.1404 A. doi : 10.1103 / PhysRevLett. 33.1404. 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Particle Physics : One Hundred Years of Discoveries : An Annotated Chronological Bibliography. Springer - Verlag. ISBN 1 - 56396 - 642 - 5. Particles in physics Elementary Fermions Quarks Up ( quark antiquark ) Down ( quark antiquark ) Charm ( quark antiquark ) Strange ( quark antiquark ) Top ( quark antiquark ) Bottom ( quark antiquark ) Leptons Electron Positron Muon Antimuon Tau Antitau Electron neutrino Electron antineutrino Muon neutrino Muon antineutrino Tau neutrino Tau antineutrino Bosons Gauge Photon Gluon W and Z bosons Scalar Higgs boson Others Ghosts Hypothetical Superpartners Gauginos Gluino Gravitino Photino Others Higgsino Neutralino Chargino Axino Sfermion ( Stop squark ) Others Planck particle Axion Dilaton Dual graviton Graviton Leptoquark Majoron Majorana fermion Magnetic monopole Preon Sterile neutrino Tachyon W ′ and Z ′ bosons X and Y bosons Composite Hadrons Baryons / hyperons Nucleon Proton Antiproton Neutron Antineutron Delta baryon Lambda baryon Sigma baryon Xi baryon Omega baryon Mesons / quarkonia Pion Rho meson Eta and eta prime mesons Phi meson J / psi meson Omega meson Upsilon meson Kaon B meson D meson Exotic hadrons Tetraquark Pentaquark Others Atomic nuclei Atoms Exotic atoms Positronium Muonium Tauonium Onia Superatoms Molecules Hypothetical Hypothetical baryons Hexaquark Skyrmion Hypothetical mesons Glueball Theta meson T meson Others Mesonic molecule Pomeron Diquarks Quasiparticles Davydov soliton Dropleton Exciton Hole Magnon Phonon Plasmaron Plasmon Polariton Polaron Roton Trion Lists Baryons Mesons Particles Quasiparticles Timeline of particle discoveries Related History of subatomic physics timeline Standard Model mathematical formulation Subatomic particles Particles Antiparticles Nuclear physics Eightfold Way Quark model Exotic matter Massless particle Relativistic particle Virtual particle Wave -- particle duality Wikipedia books Hadronic Matter Particles of the Standard Model Leptons Quarks Physics portal Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Timeline_of_particle_discoveries&oldid=826645250 '' Categories : Physics timelines Particle physics Hidden categories : Use dmy dates from October 2010 Talk About Wikipedia Español فارسی Italiano Magyar 日本 語 Português Suomi Svenska 中文 3 more Edit links This page was last edited on 20 February 2018, at 07 : 29. 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Question: who discovered the subatomic particles of an atom
Answer: J. J. Thomson