meson

American  

[mee-zon, ‑son, mez-on, mes‑] / ˈmi zɒn, ‑sɒn, ˈmɛz ɒn, ˈmɛs‑ /

noun

1. Physics. any hadron, or strongly interacting particle, other than a baryon. Mesons are bosons, having spins of 0, 1, 2, …, and, unlike baryons, do not obey a conservation law.

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meson British  

/ ˈmiːzɒn /

noun

1. Former name: mesotron.  any of a group of elementary particles, such as a pion or kaon, that usually has a rest mass between those of an electron and a proton, and an integral spin. They are responsible for the force between nucleons in the atomic nucleus See also muon

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meson Scientific  

/ mĕz′ŏn′,mĕs′-,mē′zŏn′,-sŏn′ /

1. Any of a family of subatomic particles that are composed of a quark and an antiquark. Their masses are generally intermediate between leptons and baryons, and they can have positive, negative, or neutral charge. Mesons form a subclass of hadrons and include the kaon, pion and J/psi particles. Mesons were originally believed to be the particles that mediated the strong nuclear force, but it has since been shown that the gluon mediates this force.

2. See Table at subatomic particle

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meson Cultural  

1. An elementary particle in the atomic nucleus.

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Other Word Forms

• mesonic adjective

Etymology

Origin of meson

1935–40; mes- + -on ¹ ( def. ); mesotron

Example Sentences

An experiment at the LHC, called LHCb, has found tentative evidence that muons occur significantly less often than electrons as the breakdown products of certain heavier particles called B mesons.

From Scientific American

Part of the excitement surrounding the latest LHCb result is that the specific B meson decay is “clean”—it has a very small theoretical uncertainty.

From Scientific American

Despite the uncertainties over this particular result, Parkes said when combined with other results on B mesons, the case for something unusual happening became more convincing.

From The Guardian

They belong to the family of subatomic particles known as mesons, which are made up of a quark and an antiquark; quarks are the particles that make up protons and neutrons.

From Nature

Both kaons and B mesons are made of quarks, the same kinds of particles that make up protons and neutrons, the building blocks of ordinary matter.

From New York Times