cid bd84c23fa3017fbfdbdce35d6f8c5371d79de633c4df66d69f45e0e7b2a8790b · original · open access · via wikipedia
Title: Pion Authors: Venue: Wikipedia Year: unknown Canonical: wiki:pion URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pion Collector: wikipedia OA: true ABSTRACT In particle physics, a pion or pi meson, denoted with the Greek letter pi, is any of three subatomic particles: π0, π+, and π−. Each pion consists of a quark and an antiquark and is therefore a meson. Pions are the lightest mesons and, more generally, the lightest hadrons. They are unstable, with the charged pions π+ and π− decaying after a mean lifetime of 26.033 nanoseconds, and the neutral pion π0 decaying after a much shorter lifetime of 85 attoseconds. Charged pions most often decay into muons and muon neutrinos, while neutral pions generally decay into gamma rays.