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
Atomic recoil recoil, when momentum transfers to the atomic nucleus as whole. In some cases, quantum effects can forbid momentum transfer to an individual nucleus, and momentum is transferred to the crystal lattice as a whole (see Mössbauer effect). Atomic recoil Atomic recoil is the result of the interaction of an atom with an energetic elementary particle, when the momentum of the interacting particle is transferred to the atom as whole without altering non-translational degrees of freedom of the atom. It is a purely quantum phenomenon. Atomic recoil was discovered by Harriet Brooks, Canada's first female nuclear physicist. If the transferred momentum