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The mystery of particle generations

Why are there three almost identical copies of each particle of matter?

For Symmetry Magazine:

The Standard Model of particles and interactions is remarkably successful for a theory everyone knows is missing big pieces. It accounts for the everyday stuff we know like protons, neutrons, electrons and photons, and even exotic stuff like Higgs bosons and top quarks. But it isn’t complete; it doesn’t explain phenomena such as dark matter and dark energy.

The Standard Model is successful because it is a useful guide to the particles of matter we see. One convenient pattern that has proven valuable is generations. Each particle of matter seems to come in three different versions, differentiated only by mass.

Scientists wonder whether that pattern has a deeper explanation or if it’s just convenient for now, to be superseded by a deeper truth. [Read the rest at Symmetry…]