Positron
The Positron is the antiparticle of the electron. It has the same mass as an electron but has a positive charge. Had to put my online namesake in somewhere. The discovery of these was evidence for antimatter, and experiments using them have been used for the creation of antihydrogen and for investigating the matter-antimatter anomaly.
Higgs Boson
The Higgs Boson is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics, first theorized in 1964 and discovered in 2012. It gives particles mass through the Higgs mechanism. The Higgs, as I'm sure you know, is responsible for mass existing in all other matter (with mass), and will lead to explanations of most of the concepts that we have only so far perceived. Pretty cool.
Graviton
The Graviton is a hypothetical elementary particle that mediates the force of gravity in a yet-to-be-quantized theory of gravity. Gravitons, if they can fit the standard model, may lead to a theory of quantum gravity, a relativistic holy grail.
Neutron
The Neutron is a subatomic particle found in the nucleus of an atom. It has no net electric charge and is made up of quarks and gluons. What really gets me with neutrons is how they only differ from protons by one simple quark. They still have very different properties, with various explanations suggesting why the neutron is less stable. This fascinates me and might boggle certain minds.
Neutrino
The Neutrino is an elementary particle with a very small mass and no electric charge. It interacts very weakly with matter and is very difficult to detect. Neutrinos are really cool particles, but I really like the Higgs Boson. Imagine if just one type of particle, for example, the electron, had a different mass. Then the universe would be different from how we know it. Or imagine if photons had masses.
An oscillating particle that was thought to be massless but oscillates to appear so, and has previously unknown charge oscillations that may explain the matter-antimatter anomaly. Whoa.
Travels at the speed of light through a vacuum, but it goes faster than light when passing through a medium because light slows down while neutrinos keep traveling at light's vacuum speed. Neutrinos can go through 100 light-years of solid steel without slowing down, according to the show Cosmos.
Top Quark
The Top Quark is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics. It is the most massive of all known elementary particles and decays almost instantly. We know so little of it, but what we do know is brilliant. The smallest yet most energy-dense and unstable of the fundamental particles has so much to reveal.
Proton
The Proton is a subatomic particle found in the nucleus of an atom. It has a positive electric charge and is made up of quarks and gluons. Whatever makes up the nucleus of an atom, I'm gonna like it.
Photon
The Photon is a fundamental particle that is a carrier of the electromagnetic force and has no mass or electric charge. Sometimes light acts as a wave and other times as a particle.
Electron
The Electron is an elementary particle with a negative electric charge. It is one of the fundamental particles that make up atoms. Come on, the electron is applied to almost anything and gave a lot in understanding atomic structure. Great thing, this.
Gluon
The Gluon is a gauge boson that mediates the strong interaction between quarks. It is responsible for holding quarks together to form hadrons. The gauge boson for the strong nuclear force. It's more than just an exchange of energy, though. It's the extreme density of energy wells that drives the strong interaction, and that is quite a quirk.
The Newcomers
? Hadron
Hadron: A composite particle made of quarks and gluons that interacts via the strong nuclear force, and includes protons, neutrons, and mesons.
? Selectron
The Selectron is a hypothetical supersymmetric particle that is the superpartner of the electron and has the same electric charge and spin.
The Contenders
Muon
The Muon is an elementary particle similar to the electron but with a greater mass. It is unstable and decays into an electron and two neutrinos. Muons, as heavy electrons, have played a significant role in evaluating energy differences in fundamental particles and in muonic atoms. I think they deserve more attention. So does the tau particle for the same reason.
Strange Quark
The Strange Quark is a type of quark that is found in certain types of hadrons. It is named after its unusual behavior in particle interactions. The strange quark is a strange customer. It leads to explanations of the low abundance of non-atomic hadrons and explains strangeness interactions.
Omega Particle
The Omega Particle is a hypothetical elementary particle that is highly unstable and has a mass greater than a thousand times that of a proton.
Charm Quark
The Charm Quark is a type of quark that is found in certain types of hadrons. It is named after its "charming" behavior in particle interactions.
Kaon
The Kaon is a type of meson consisting of a strange quark and either an up or down quark. It is involved in the weak interaction and is used to study CP violation.
Pion
The Pion is a type of meson consisting of an up or down quark and an anti-up or anti-down quark. It is involved in the strong interaction and is used to study the strong nuclear force.
Photino
The Photino is a hypothetical supersymmetric particle that is the superpartner of the photon and a candidate for dark matter.
Antiparticle
The Antiparticle is a particle that has the same mass as its corresponding particle but has opposite electric charge and other quantum numbers. An antiparticle is a subatomic particle having the same mass as one of the particles of ordinary matter but with opposite electric charge and magnetic moment.
Black Hole Electron
The Black Hole Electron is a hypothetical particle that is similar to an electron but has negative energy and is predicted to exist in the vicinity of a black hole. In physics, there is a speculative notion that if there were a black hole with the same mass, charge, and angular momentum as an electron, it would share some of the properties of the electron. Most notably, Brandon Carter showed in 1968 that the magnetic moment of such an object would match that of an electron.
Tau
The Tau is a lepton that is similar to the electron but is much heavier and decays into other particles.
Phonon
The Phonon is a quasiparticle that represents a collective excitation of atoms or molecules in a solid.
Plasmon
The Plasmon is a quasiparticle that represents a collective excitation of electrons in a solid or plasma.
Polaron
The Polaron is a quasiparticle that represents a charged particle moving through a polar medium and creating a local distortion of the medium.
Tachyon
The Tachyon is a hypothetical particle that is predicted to travel faster than light and has imaginary mass.
Magneton
The Magneton is a unit of magnetic moment that is associated with a charged particle, such as an electron or proton.