Strange Particles

• In the early 1950s physicists had considerable

difficulty understanding the myriad of observed
reactions and decays. For example, the behavior of
the K mesons as well as the Λ and Σ baryons seemed
very strange.

➢ They are produced via strong interaction with

characteristic lifetime 10-23 - 10-22 sec.
➢ They decay via weak interactions with
characteristic lifetime 10-10 sec.
➢ They are always produced in pairs.
The New Quantum Number: Strangeness
• Strangeness, S, is conserved in the strong and
electromagnetic interactions, but not in the weak
interaction.

• S=0 for particles exhibiting no strange property

• S ≠ 0 for strange particles
• S of particle = -S of antiparticle

• The strange particles must be produced in pairs to

conserve strangeness.

• Only ΔS = ±1 violations are allowed by the weak

interaction.
The New Quantum Number: Strangeness
 The New Quantum Number: Baryon Number

• A new quantum number called baryon number

that has the value B = +1 for baryons and −1 for
antibaryons, and 0 for all other particles.
 Hypercharge

• One more quantity, called hypercharge, has also

become widely used as a quantum number.

• The hypercharge quantum number Y is defined by

Y = S + B.

• The hypercharge and strangeness conservation laws

hold for the strong and electromagnetic interactions,
but are violated for the weak interaction.
 Concept of Isospin

• Nuclear interaction between two nucleons is

independent of the charge they carry.

• Further masses of neutron and proton are very nearly

same.

• So we can think that neutron and proton have

something common i. e. some quantum number
characteristic of both i. e. conserved. This quantum
number is called isospin.

• Isospin was introduced by Werner Heisenberg in 1932 to

explain symmetries of the then newly discovered neutron.
Multiplet Number & Isospin Quantum Number

Pairs of particles like nucleons and triplets like pions hardly

differ in their mass and their charges differing from each other
by unity ……..

A multiplet number M is assigned to such particles to indicate

the number of their different charge states.

For nucleon M=2, for pion M=3.

Isospin quantum number I is defined as M=2I+1 or I=(M-1)/2

 Isospin Projection I3

Members of an isomultiplet are distinguished by isospin

projection I3 (projection of I in isospace)

1/2
+1/2 -1/2

P n

Isospin Isospin Isospin Isospin Isospin triplet Isospin doublet

triplet doublet singlet doublet
 Gell-mann & Nishijima Formula

After the discovery of charm, top, and bottom quark flavors, this formula
has been generalized. It now takes the form

S + B + C + B + T
q / e = I3 +
2
Where C, B′, T are the charm, bottomness and topness quantum numbers.
 Symmetry Classification of Hadrons

Eightfold Way is a term coined by American physicist Murray

Gell-Mann (1961) for a theory organizing
subatomic baryons and mesons into octets.

It refers to the eight-member families to which many sets of

particle belong

The name adopted from the Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism.

The theory was independently proposed by Israeli

physicist Yuval Ne'eman (1961).
 Symmetry Classification of Hadrons

The arrangement of elementary particles into a number of

families is based on the group theory developed by M. S.
Lie.

Hadrons with same spin-parity values can be plotted in a

diagram in which the abscissa represents I3 and ordinate
represents hypercharge Y.

This diagram is called the weight diagram.

Pseudoscalar meson (spin parity = 0-) octet+singlet:
Y

+1

0 Electric charge

-1

I3
-1 -½ 0 ½ 1
Vector meson (spin parity= 1-) octet+singlet:
Y

+1

Electric charge
0

-1

I3
-1 -½ 0 ½ 1
Baryon octet with (spin-parity ) in weight diagram

Mass
Electric charge
Baryon Decuplet with (spin parity= 3/2+) in weight diagram

Mass
Electric charge
Quark Structure of Mesons and Baryons
Why nature allows only 1, 8 and 10 multiplets
for the hadrons?
➢ Hadrons may have constituents which fill these multiplets

➢ M. Gell-Mann and independently, George Zweig proposed that

hadrons were formed from fractionally charged particles called
quarks in 1964

➢ Quarks are believed to be essentially pointlike, just like leptons

➢ Gell-Mann borrowed the word quark from James Joyce’s novel

“Finnegan Wake”, which contains the phrase “three quarks for
Muster Mark”.
 SU(3) Model: Hadrons are composed of three varieties of Quarks

Quark I3 B S Y q Mass
(GeV/c2)
u 1/2 1/3 0 1/3 2/3 e ~0.003
d -1/2 1/3 0 1/3 -1/3 e ~0.006
s 0 1/3 -1 -2/3 -1/3 e ~0.1