Daecon Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 I was reading a magazine that mentioned an elementary particle called a Kaon which had the property to be able to change into it's own anti-particle and back again. This same magazine also had a table of all the elementary particles and the Kaon wasn't listed on it. So what's the story with the Kaon - apart from it having a REALLY cool name? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Severian Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 A kaon is a particular bound state of a quark and anti-quark, one of which must be a 'strange' quark. It is not a fundamental particle. There are different kaons, depending on which quarks are inside. For example K0 is a bound state of a down quark with a strange anti-quark, while K+ is an up quark with a strange anti-quark. They are rather interesting because their interactions do not conserve CP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gagsrcool Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 Could you give us some more info on it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5614 Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 I know a bit about kaons. For example there are only 4 types of kaons (kaons are mesons): 1) K0 (down quark & strange anti-quark) 2) Anti K0 (therefore it contains a strange quark & a down anti-quark) 3) K- (strange quark & up antiquark) 4) K+ (antiparticle of a K- so contains an up quark & a strange anti-quark) These 4 different kaons (which you could count as 2, each with their own anti kaon) exist because they each have a different strangeness (S). S is a quantum number and is worked out by: S = [number of strange anti-quarks] - [number of strange quarks] Basically kaons have a lot to do with strange quarks, indeed a kaon must contain either a strange quark or a strange anti-quark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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