Charge number

The electric charge number (also charge quantum number ) is the dimensionless number, which is multiplied by the elementary electric charge, the electric charge of a particle or the system (such as an ion ) gives:

For example, the charge on a chloride ion is equal to -1 h • e D, its atomic number is equal to -1.

A nucleus that can be considered to be an ion that has lost all the electrons, the charge number is the same as the number of protons Z.

In particle physics is usually ( where this can not lead to misunderstandings ), the electric charge Q in units of the elementary charge, so actually the charge number.

The elementary particles have integer charge numbers, except for the color- charge-carrying quarks (z = ± 1/3, ± 2 /3) and the hypothetical leptoquarks (z = ± 1/3, ± 4 /3).