# What gives an elementary particle a charge? [duplicate]

We know that proton is positive, and electron is negative. But where does come notion of negativity and positivity? Does charge come from some specific particles, or they specific order?

• Can you help me understand the question a bit better? If you are asking "What is charge?" then I point out that this question has been asked and answered here several times. Look here for some answers and links to others, or use the search box in the upper left corner of the page. Or help me understand the question. – garyp Jul 6 '14 at 12:37
• @garyp, sure, thanks for you attention btw, this question should be better stated as "what does give an elementary particle a charge". – PaulD Jul 6 '14 at 12:39
• Ok, then please edit your question to clarify what you mean. And I'll point you to this post, and again refer you to the search box. If you have further specific questions, start a new question. – garyp Jul 6 '14 at 12:43
• possible duplicate of Is there any theory for origination of charge? – garyp Jul 6 '14 at 12:47
• While the question is not at all the same, it is worth reading this answer by Mark Eichenlaub; at the deepest heart, physics is a descriptive discipline and somewhere, down at the very bottom of the "Why?"s is the answer "That's just the way it is". Every time. – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Jul 6 '14 at 14:09

Another answer, perhas deeper, could be that the existance of such an operator $Q$ (an thus the associated instrument) is guaranteed, as for most of the relevant operators in QM, by the Noether theorem associated with a $U(1)$ global symmetry of the action. We can thus say that the charge exists because there the dynamics is invariant under a certain $U(1)$ symmetry group. Moreover, we know that $[Q,H]=0$ and therefore the electric charges is also conserved in time.