Encyclopedia > Pi meson

  Article Content

Pion

Redirected from Pi meson

Pion is a shortened form of the name Pi meson; this subatomic particle comes in three forms: the pi-zero (π0), pi-plus (π+) and pi-minus (π-). Pi mesons are the lightest mesons.

Pi mesons have zero spin and are composed of first generation quarks. An up and an anti-down quark compose a pi-plus, while a down and an anti-up quark compose the pi-minus, its antiparticle. Combinations of up and anti-up, or down and anti-down, would both be neutral, but because they have the same quantum numbers are only found in superpositions. The lowest energy superposition is the pi-zero, and it is its own antiparticle.

The pi-plus (π+) and pi-minus (π-) may combine to form an exotic atom called pionium, if they are created close to each other with a small relative momentum.

External Link



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
1904

... April 7 - Ralph Bunche[?], diplomat, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize April 16 - Fifi D'Orsay, actress (+ 1983) April 22 - Robert Oppenheimer, physicist (+ 1967) May ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 25.1 ms