cid 9c882f007f6d81fcd60952c1729f9b1923261bfba090e63f026164509a4814dc · original · open access · via wikipedia
Title: Meson Authors: Venue: Wikipedia Year: unknown Canonical: wiki:meson URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meson Collector: wikipedia OA: true ABSTRACT In particle physics, a meson is a type of hadronic subatomic particle composed of an equal number of quarks and antiquarks, usually one of each, bound together by the strong interaction. Because mesons are composed of quark subparticles, they have a meaningful physical size, a diameter of roughly one femtometre (10−15 m), which is about 0.6 times the size of a proton or neutron. All mesons are unstable, with the longest-lived lasting for only a few tenths of a nanosecond. Heavier mesons decay to lighter mesons and ultimately to stable electrons, neutrinos and photons.