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Preon
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<p>In <a href="/facts/Particle_physics/YgIuyj2t">particle physics</a>, preons are hypothetical <a href="/facts/Point_particle/4MPToN8W">point particles</a>, conceived of as sub-components of <a href="/facts/Quark/hwuuVkV5">quarks</a> and <a href="/facts/Lepton/X4a6MGop">leptons</a>. The word was coined by <a href="/facts/Jogesh_Pati/RdP0Vw34">Jogesh Pati</a> and <a href="/facts/Abdus_Salam/M4GNh8dE">Abdus Salam</a>, in 1974. Interest in preon models peaked in the 1980s but has slowed, as the <a href="/facts/Standard_Model/LhVGf9ow">Standard Model</a> of particle physics continues to describe physics mostly successfully, and no direct experimental evidence for lepton and quark compositeness has been found. Preons come in four varieties: plus, anti-plus, zero, and anti-zero. <a href="/facts/W_boson/gAncY5XV">W bosons</a> have six preons, and quarks and leptons have only three. </p><p>In the <a href="/facts/Hadron/C0sd1zty">hadronic</a> sector, some effects are considered anomalies within the Standard Model. For example, the <a href="/facts/Proton_spin_crisis/f5lTalYf">proton spin puzzle</a>, the <a href="/facts/EMC_effect/1hSoHDPU">EMC effect</a>, the distributions of electric charges inside the <a href="/facts/Nucleon/6fguU9Xk">nucleons</a>, as found by <a href="/facts/Robert_Hofstadter/J3BhKUUb">Robert Hofstadter</a> in 1956, and the ad hoc <a href="/facts/CKM_matrix/7ckdsIcX">CKM matrix</a> elements. </p><p>When the term "preon" was coined, it was primarily to explain the two families of spin-1/2 fermions: quarks and leptons. More recent preon models also account for spin-1 bosons, and are still called "preons". Each of the preon models postulates a set of fewer fundamental particles than those of the Standard Model, together with the rules governing how those fundamental particles combine and interact. Based on these rules, the preon models try to explain the Standard Model, often predicting small discrepancies with this model and generating new particles and certain phenomena which do not belong to the Standard Model. </p>