meson

[mee-zon, ‑son, mez-on, mes‑]

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.

meson

/ 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

meson

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

meson

1. An elementary particle in the atomic nucleus.

Other Word Forms

• mesonic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of meson¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of meson¹

C20: from _meso- + _-on

Example Sentences

The track she was looking at, later labelled k, was evidence of an unknown particle, now known as the kaon or K meson.

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If phi mesons can add to the strong force field, their cousins should, too—and J/psi mesons’ spin polarizations should be similarly impacted by the resulting fluctuations.

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When collisions of protons produced massive particles called B mesons, these quickly decayed.

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The Belle II experiment in Japan, which is dedicated to investigating B meson decays, is also gathering new evidence.

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Muon neutrinos fly from the decays of fleeting particles called pi-plus mesons, which can be produced by smashing a beam of protons into a target.

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