Strange quark
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| Composition | Elementary particle |
|---|---|
| Family | Fermion |
| Group | Quark |
| Generation | Second |
| Mass | 80 - 130 MeV/c2 |
| Electric charge | −1/3 e |
| Spin | ½ |
The strange quark is a second-generation quark with a charge of −(1/3)e and a strangeness of −1. It is the third lightest quark after the up and down quarks, with a mass of somewhere between 80 and 130 MeV. The first strange particle (particle containing a strange valence quark) was discovered in 1947, with the identification of the kaon, but the strange quark itself was not identified until Gell-Mann and Zweig developed the quark model in 1964.
[edit] Hadrons containing strange valence quarks
Hadrons containing strange valence quarks include the following:
- Kaons are mesons containing a strange quark (or its antiparticle) and an up or down quark.
- The η and η′ flavorless mesons are linear combinations of several quark-antiquark pairs, including the strange-antistrange.
- The φ flavorless meson is pure strange-antistrange.
- Strange baryons are known as hyperons: the Σ's and Λ's have one strange quark, the Ξ's two, and the Ω's three.
[edit] See also
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