What is it that quarks are actually made of? Will they decay into this substance?
As the up and down quarks are the lightest type of quark do they not decay?
I was thinking that if this could happen, there must be lighter quarks?
In response to the comment:
I know that they don't exist on their own but a quark must surely decay at some point into what makes them up?
So I wanted to know: if they decay what do they decay into, and if they do not what are quarks made of?
Answer
Quarks as we know them are fundamental particles, which means that they do not have smaller constituents. This however does not imply that they cannot decay. A particle in quantum field theory does not need to have constituents to decay into, it can in principle decay into any particle its corresponding field couples to (interacts with), as long as it obeys certain conservation laws. A top quark for example can decay through the weak interaction into a W-boson and another, lighter quark (bottom, down or strange). Up and down quarks can decay into each other by emission of a W boson (this is the origin of beta decay due to the fact that the W can, depending on its type, decay into electrons, positrons and electron (anti-)neutrinos, ).
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