Atomeilles

Atomeilles are a term used in speculative physics and science fiction to denote hypothetical subatomic constituents smaller than atoms. In such usage, an atomeille would be a fundamental building block from which atoms—and potentially all matter—are composed. The concept is not part of the Standard Model and has no experimental support.

The name combines 'atome' with a diminutive suffix -ille (and plural -illes), yielding atomeille/atomeilles. It appears primarily in speculative theoretical discussions and in worldbuilding for science fiction settings, where it is used to explain unusual material properties or scales beyond conventional subatomic theory.

In some models, atomeilles are envisaged as either truly elementary entities smaller than quarks and leptons or as composite substructures within them. They are sometimes introduced to address questions about the nature of mass, charge, or the apparent discreteness of matter. However there is no widely accepted framework or experimental evidence for their existence, and they are not part of mainstream physics. They are often treated as hypothetical constructs or fictional devices rather than established physics.

No experimental observation has confirmed the existence of atomeilles. High-energy experiments designed to probe substructure of matter have not required atomeilles to explain results, and searches for deviations from the Standard Model have so far found none attributable to such entities. The concept remains mainly within speculative or fictional contexts.

See also: preon, quark, lepton, Standard Model, subatomic particle, speculative physics, science fiction.