Tau (particle) Tau (particle) The tau (τ), also called the tau lepton, tau particle, or tauon, is an elementary particle similar to the electron, with negative electric charge and a spin of. Together with the electron, the muon, and the three neutrinos, it is a lepton. Like all elementary particles with half-integer spin, the tau has a corresponding antiparticle of opposite charge but equal mass and spin, which in the tau's case is the antitau (also called the "positive tau"). Tau particles are denoted by and the antitau by . Tau leptons have a lifetime of and a mass of (compared to
Color charge be the anticolor of red, green, and blue, respectively, for the color charge to be conserved in particle-antiparticle creation and annihilation. Particle physicists call these antired, antigreen, and antiblue. All three colors mixed together, or any one of these colors and its complement (or negative), is "colorless" or "white" and has a net color charge of zero. Free particles have a color charge of zero: baryons are composed of three quarks, but the individual quarks can have red, green, or blue charges, or negatives; mesons are made from a quark and antiquark, the quark can be any color, and the