Theoritical question?

Question

Would it be possible, in theory to split a subatomic particle? If so, how much power would it produce? Say if you split an electron, or even smaller than that a quark, neutrino, positron, or other sub-sub-atomic particles, what would one do to even fathom splitting one? If it takes a neutron forced into a large atom to split the atom, would it be possible to fire say, neutrinos or positrons at a proton to split it?

I realise that there are sub atomic particles and in nuclear engineering we can recognize them and the fact that they have mass, but what I'm wondering, is would it be possible to break apart a neutron, proton, or electron? Because they are made up of sub-sub-atomic particles so it would only stand to reason to me that there would be some way to but how could you?

Answer 1

It is possible to split a proton or a neutron because they are made of quarks. In general this class of composed particles is known as "hadrons".
All hadrons are made of quarks, there are 6 "flavours" (types) of quarks:
up, down, strange, charm, beauty, top
each of them can have 6 different "colours" (strong analogue to the electric charge):
red, blue, green, anti-red, anti-blue, anti-green
each hadron should be "white", so it can be made of R-G-B, R-antiR, antiR-antiG-antiB and so on.. try in counting how many they are... there is a whole zoo...
An electron, or a neutrino, instead, are known as "leptons" and, for what we know, are fundamental, they do not have any sub-component, so it it impossible to split them, because nothing smaller exists. Leptons are in some way more similar to quarks than to hadrons, they are:
electron, muon, tau particle
and each of them has a correspondant antiparticle, identical except for the electric charge:
anti-electron (or positron), anti-muon, anti-tau
and each of them has a correspondant neutrino, so we have
electronic, muonic and tauonic neutrinos and anti-neutrinos.

All these statements are based on the standard model that is the way we can describe almost everything in the world... almost.... no scientific theory is definitive, so this could change in a few years, but for now we know thinks to act this way.

Answer 2

Protons are used to collide with other protons and that is how many other subatomic particles were discovered and it was agreed that protons are not fundamental particles. But energy production takes place only if some mass disappears. And that may not be the case always.

Answer 3

Quantum Chromodynamics theory (QCD) allows for a state in which quarks are free. However, the energy requirements are extremely high and probably not likely to be achieved. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_matter

Answer 4

i dont think so
i dont hav exact idea of all this