Particle Class

The Particle class provides an object-oriented interface for particle information.

Creating a Particle Instance

The simplest way to create an instance of the Particle class is to pass it a str representing a particle.

>>> from plasmapy.particles import Particle
>>> electron = Particle('e-')

The Particle class accepts a variety of different str formats to represent particles. Atomic symbols are case-sensitive, but element names and many aliases are not.

>>> alpha = Particle('alpha')
>>> deuteron = Particle('D+')
>>> triton = Particle('tritium 1+')
>>> iron56 = Particle('Fe-56')
>>> helium = Particle('helium')
>>> muon = Particle('mu-')
>>> antimuon = Particle('antimuon')
>>> hydride = Particle('H-')

An int may be used as the first positional argument to Particle to represent an atomic number. For isotopes and ions, the mass number may be represented with the mass_numb keyword and the integer charge may be represented with the Z keyword.

>>> proton = Particle(1, mass_numb=1, Z=1)

The most frequently used Particle instances may be imported directly from the atomic subpackage.

>>> from plasmapy.particles import proton, electron

The Particle instances that may be imported directly are: proton, electron, neutron, positron, deuteron, triton, and alpha.

Accessing Particle Properties

The properties of each particle may be accessed using the attributes of the Particle instance.

>>> proton.atomic_number
1
>>> electron.integer_charge
-1
>>> triton.mass_number
3

Some of these properties are returned as a Quantity in SI units.

>>> alpha.charge
<Quantity 3.20435324e-19 C>
>>> deuteron.mass
<Quantity 3.34358372e-27 kg>
>>> triton.half_life
<Quantity 3.888e+08 s>
>>> iron56.binding_energy.to('GeV')
<Quantity 0.49225958 GeV>

Strings representing particles may be accessed using the particle, element, isotope, and ionic_symbol attributes.

>>> antimuon.particle
'mu+'
>>> triton.element
'H'
>>> alpha.isotope
'He-4'
>>> deuteron.ionic_symbol
'D 1+'

Categories

The categories attribute returns a set with the classification categories corresponding to the particle.

>>> sorted(electron.categories)
['charged', 'electron', 'fermion', 'lepton', 'matter', 'stable']

Membership of a particle within a category may be checked using the is_category method.

>>> alpha.is_category('lepton')
False
>>> electron.is_category('fermion', 'lepton', 'charged')
True
>>> iron56.is_category(['element', 'isotope'])
True

The particle must be in all of the categories in the require keyword, at least one of the categories in the any_of keyword, and none of the categories in the exclude in order for it to return True.

>>> deuteron.is_category(require={'element', 'isotope', 'ion'})
True
>>> iron56.is_category(any_of=['charged', 'uncharged'])
False
>>> alpha.is_category(exclude='lepton')
True

Calling the is_category method with no arguments returns a set containing all of the valid categories for any particle. Valid categories include: 'actinide', 'alkali metal', 'alkaline earth metal', 'antibaryon', 'antilepton', 'antimatter', 'antineutrino', 'baryon', 'boson', 'charged', 'electron', 'element', 'fermion', 'halogen', 'ion', 'isotope', 'lanthanide', 'lepton', 'matter', 'metal', 'metalloid', 'neutrino', 'neutron', 'noble gas', 'nonmetal', 'positron', 'post-transition metal', 'proton', 'stable', 'transition metal', 'uncharged', and 'unstable'.

Conditionals and Equality Properties

Equality between particles may be tested either between two Particle instances, or between a Particle instance and a str.

>>> Particle('H-1') == Particle('protium 1+')
False
>>> alpha == 'He-4 2+'
True

The is_electron and is_ion attributes provide a quick way to check whether or not a particle is an electron or ion, respectively.

>>> electron.is_electron
True
>>> hydride.is_electron
False
>>> deuteron.is_ion
True

The element and isotope attributes return None when the particle does not correspond to an element or isotope. Because non-empty strings evaluate to True and None evaluates to False when converted to a bool, these attributes may be used in conditional statements to test whether or not a particle is in one of these categories.

particles = [Particle('e-'), Particle('Fe-56'), Particle('alpha')]

for particle in particles:
    if particle.element:
        print(f"{particle} corresponds to element {particle.element}")
    if particle.isotope:
        print(f"{particle} corresponds to isotope {particle.isotope}")

Returning Antiparticles

The antiparticle of an elementary particle or antiparticle may be found by either using Python’s unary invert operator (~) or the antiparticle attribute of a Particle instance.

>>> ~electron
Particle("e+")
>>> antimuon.antiparticle
Particle("mu-")