strange particle

noun

Physics.

1. any elementary particle with a strangeness quantum number other than zero.

strange particle

1. Any of various unstable elementary particles, having a short half-life and a nonzero strangeness quantum number. Sigma and xi baryons, for example, are strange particles.

Word History and Origins

Origin of strange particle¹

First recorded in 1955–60; originally so called because of the anomalously long decay time of such particles

Example Sentences

Protons and neutrons have S = 0, and through the strong force, can produce a pair of strange particles that have S = –1 and S = +1, so that total strangeness is conserved.

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But how did the weak interaction that was, among other things, responsible for the decay of Murray’s “strange particles” actually work?

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The very first observation of asymmetry involving strange particles in 1964 allowed theorists to predict the existence of six quarks—at a time when only three were known to exist.

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A cosmic engine is hurling strange particles at Earth—and new observations, published today in the journal Science, are complicating the hunt for the culprit.

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The scientists then use powerful computers to sift through the data from those collisions, and strange particles sometimes emerge from that research.

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