tau lepton
E50859
The tau lepton is a heavy, unstable elementary particle similar to the electron but with much greater mass, playing a key role in lepton physics and tests of the Standard Model.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| tau lepton canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T401553 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: tau lepton Context triple: [Standard Model, containsParticle, tau lepton]
-
A.
W boson
The W boson is a massive elementary particle that mediates the weak nuclear force and is responsible for processes like beta decay in the Standard Model of particle physics.
-
B.
Z boson
The Z boson is a neutral elementary particle that mediates the weak nuclear force and plays a central role in the electroweak theory of particle physics.
-
C.
Higgs boson
The Higgs boson is an elementary particle in the Standard Model whose associated field gives mass to other fundamental particles, confirming a key mechanism of particle physics.
-
D.
LEP
LEP (Large Electron–Positron Collider) was a major circular particle accelerator at CERN used to study electroweak interactions and precisely measure properties of particles like the Z boson.
-
E.
K+ (charged kaon)
K⁺ (charged kaon) is a positively charged meson containing an up quark and an anti-strange quark, notable for its role in probing weak interactions and testing the Standard Model through rare decay processes.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: tau lepton Target entity description: The tau lepton is a heavy, unstable elementary particle similar to the electron but with much greater mass, playing a key role in lepton physics and tests of the Standard Model.
-
A.
W boson
The W boson is a massive elementary particle that mediates the weak nuclear force and is responsible for processes like beta decay in the Standard Model of particle physics.
-
B.
Z boson
The Z boson is a neutral elementary particle that mediates the weak nuclear force and plays a central role in the electroweak theory of particle physics.
-
C.
Higgs boson
The Higgs boson is an elementary particle in the Standard Model whose associated field gives mass to other fundamental particles, confirming a key mechanism of particle physics.
-
D.
LEP
LEP (Large Electron–Positron Collider) was a major circular particle accelerator at CERN used to study electroweak interactions and precisely measure properties of particles like the Z boson.
-
E.
K+ (charged kaon)
K⁺ (charged kaon) is a positively charged meson containing an up quark and an anti-strange quark, notable for its role in probing weak interactions and testing the Standard Model through rare decay processes.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Standard Model particle
ⓘ
elementary particle ⓘ fermion ⓘ lepton ⓘ |
| antiparticle | antitau ⓘ |
| baryonNumber | 0 ⓘ |
| belongsTo |
Standard Model
ⓘ
surface form:
lepton sector of the Standard Model
|
| chargeConjugationPartner | antitau ⓘ |
| colorCharge | 0 ⓘ |
| decayMode |
hadronic decays with one or more mesons plus tau neutrino
ⓘ
leptonic decay to electron, electron antineutrino, and tau neutrino ⓘ leptonic decay to muon, muon antineutrino, and tau neutrino ⓘ |
| discoveredAt |
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
ⓘ
surface form:
SLAC
|
| discoveredBy | Martin Perl ⓘ |
| discoveryYear | 1975 ⓘ |
| electricCharge | -1 e ⓘ |
| generation | third lepton generation ⓘ |
| hasAssociatedNeutrino | tau neutrino ⓘ |
| interaction |
electromagnetic interaction
ⓘ
gravitational interaction ⓘ weak interaction ⓘ |
| isHeavierThan |
electron
ⓘ
muon ⓘ |
| isPointLike | consistent with point-like down to current experimental limits ⓘ |
| isProducedIn |
hadron collider experiments
ⓘ
high-energy electron–positron collisions ⓘ |
| isSimilarTo |
electron
ⓘ
muon ⓘ |
| isSubjectOf |
precision tests of the Standard Model
ⓘ
tests of lepton universality ⓘ |
| isUnstable | true ⓘ |
| isUsedToTest |
CP violation in tau decays
ⓘ
charged-current weak interaction structure ⓘ |
| leptonFamilyNumber | tau lepton number +1 ⓘ |
| leptonNumber |
+1
ⓘ
-1 ⓘ |
| lifetime | about 2.9×10⁻13 s ⓘ |
| mass |
about 1.77686 GeV/c²
ⓘ
about 1776.86 MeV/c² ⓘ about 3.167×10⁻²⁷ kg ⓘ |
| PDGParticleID |
-15
ⓘ
15 ⓘ |
| restEnergy | about 1.77686 GeV ⓘ |
| spin | 1/2 ⓘ |
| statistics | Fermi–Dirac statistics ⓘ |
| symbol |
τ⁺
ⓘ
τ⁻ ⓘ |
| weakHypercharge | -1 (left-handed doublet) ⓘ |
| weakIsospin | -1/2 (left-handed component) ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: tau lepton Description of subject: The tau lepton is a heavy, unstable elementary particle similar to the electron but with much greater mass, playing a key role in lepton physics and tests of the Standard Model.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.