K meson


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K meson

[′kā ¦mā‚sän]
(particle physics)
Collective name for four pseudo-scalar mesons, having masses of about 495 MeV (megaelectronvolts) and decaying via weak interactions: K +, K -, K 0S, and K 0L; they consist of two isotopic spin doublets, the (K +, K 0) doublet and its antiparticle doublet (K -, K̄ 0), having hypercharge or strangeness of +1 and -1 respectively, where K 0 and K̄ 0 are certain combinations of KL 0 and KS 0 states. Also known as kaon.
Collective name for any meson resonance belonging to an isotopic doublet with hypercharge +1 or -1, denoted KJP (m) or K̄JP (m) respectively, where m is the mass in megaelectronvolts, and J and P are the spin and parity.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
References in periodicals archive ?
In the present section, we perform the numerical analysis of the light cone sum rules for the strong coupling constants of spin 1/2 negative parity heavy baryons with [pi] and K mesons obtained in the previous section.
Strong Coupling Constants of Negative Parity Heavy Baryons with [pi] and K Mesons
Fitch, now of Princeton University, and their colleagues revealed that nature--or at least particles called K mesons, or kaons--didn't behave as expected.
Antimatter-Matter Mirror Shows Warp
A 1964 experiment shocked physicists with its revelation that some particles known as K mesons would follow an altered pattern of decay if swapped with their antiparticles and reflected in a mirror.
Decays may reflect matter-antimatter rift
There is also evidence from particle physics, found in the behavior of K mesons. Fishback points out that this evidence links the fifth force to electromagnetism and the weak interaction, while his Eotvos work links it to gravity.
Unconventional physics: 'quite crazy' after all these years
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