Decay Paths for Quarks Page 1 of 3

Transformation of Quark Flavors

by the Weak Interaction
The decay of hadrons by the weak interaction can be viewed as a process of
decay of their constituent quarks. There is a pattern of these quark decays: a
quark of charge +2/3 ( u,c,t) is always transformed to a quark of charge -1/3
(d,s,b) and vice versa. This is because the transformation proceeds by the
exchange of charged W bosons, which must change the charge by one unit.
The general pattern is that the quarks will decay to the most massive quark
possible, leading the the pattern
Index
t -> b -> c -> s -> u <-> d
Particle
The following table shows the usual pattern of quark transformation and concepts
gives examples of some hadron processes to which those quark
transformations contribute. Reference

Rohlf
Quark Process Example Mean Lifetime (s) Ch. 18,
Up ... Table 18-
1
Down 900
Strange 1.24 x 10-8
Charm 1.1 x 10-12
Bottom 1.3 x 10-12
Top ... ...

* The W bosons which are indicated as W* are virtual bosons, existing only
within the time frame allowed by the uncertainty principle. The positive W*
decays to a positron and an electron neutrino, and the negative W* to an
electron and antineutrino as can be seen in the example reactions above.

The transformations shown are the most probable for the quarks, but there
are other possibilities. The c quark has about 5% probability of decaying into
a d quark instead of an s quark.

The most common of the quark transformations are those of the up and
down quarks which are the constituents of ordinary matter in the form of
protons and neutrons.

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The decay of the up quark above is important in the proton-proton cycle of

nuclear fusion. The decay of the down quark is involved in the decay of the
neutron and in beta decay in general.

Feynman diagrams of transformations

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Index
Quark Transformations
Particle
The modes of quark flavor transformation by the weak interaction are shown concepts
in Feynman diagrams. These diagrams are useful in analyzing decay
processes to help keep track of what is happening on the quark level. The Reference
most common transformations are listed in the quark transformation table.
These transformations take place by means of the W vector boson. Rohlf
Ch. 18

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