Quantum chromodynamics possess an additional SU(3) gauge degree of freedom, later called color charge. Han and Nambu noted that quarks might interact via an octet of vector gauge bosons: the gluons. Since free quark searches consistently failed to turn up any evidence for the new particles, and because an elementary particle back then was "defined" as a particle which could be separated and isolated, Gell-Mann often said that quarks were merely convenient mathematical constructs, not real particles. The meaning of this statement was usually clear in context: He meant quarks are confined, but he also was implying that the strong interactions could
Elementary particle of elementary particles by hypothesizing that each known particle associates with a "shadow" partner far more massive, although all such superpartners remain undiscovered. Meanwhile, an elementary boson mediating gravitation—the graviton—remains hypothetical. All elementary particles are—depending on their "spin"—either bosons or fermions. These are differentiated via the spin–statistics theorem of quantum statistics. Particles of "half-integer" spin exhibit Fermi–Dirac statistics and are fermions. Particles of "integer" spin, in other words full-integer, exhibit Bose–Einstein statistics and are bosons. In the Standard Model, elementary particles are represented for predictive utility as point particles. Though extremely successful, the Standard Model is limited to the microcosm