D meson
Appearance
The D mesons are the lightest particle containing charm quarks. They are often studied to gain knowledge on the weak interaction. [1] The strange D mesons (Ds) were called the "F mesons" prior to 1986.
Overview
The D mesons were discovered in 1976 during the Mark I experiments at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center [2]
Since the D meson is the lightest meson containing a charm quark, it must change the charm quark into another quark to decay. Quark transmutations take place via the weak interaction. In D mesons, the charm quark changes into a strange quark with a W particle and then decays into
K
s and
π
s. [1]
List of D mesons
Particle name | Particle symbol |
Antiparticle symbol |
Quark content[3] |
Rest mass (MeV/c2) | IG | JPC | S | C | B' | Mean lifetime (s) | Commonly decays to (>5% of decays) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
D meson[4] | D+ |
D− |
c d |
1,869.62 ± 0.20 | 1⁄2 | 0− | 0 | +1 | 0 | 1.040 ± 0.007 × 10−12 | See D+ decay modes |
D meson[5] | D0 |
D0 |
c u |
1,864.84 ± 0.17 | 1⁄2 | 0− | 0 | +1 | 0 | 4.101 ± 0.015 × 10−13 | See D0 decay modes |
Strange D meson[6] | D+ s |
D− s |
c s |
1968.47±0.33 | 0 | 0− | +1 | +1 | 0 | (5.00±0.07)×10−13 | See D+ s decay modes |
D meson[7] | D∗+ (2010) |
D∗− (2010) |
c d |
2,010.27.62 ± 0.17 | 1⁄2 | 1− | 0 | +1 | 0 | 6.9 ± 1.9 × 10−21[a] | D0 + π+ or D+ + π0 |
D meson[8] | D∗0 (2007) |
D∗0 (2007) |
c u |
2,006.97 ± 0.19 | 1⁄2 | 1− | 0 | +1 | 0 | >3.1 × 10−22[a] | D0 + π0 or D0 + γ |
[a] ^ PDG reports the resonance width (Γ). Here the conversion τ = ħ⁄Γ is given instead.
See also
References
- ^ a b D Meson
- ^ http://www.kudryavtsev.staff.shef.ac.uk/phy466/charmed-mesons_files/charmed-mesons.ppt
- ^ C. Amsler et al.. (2008): Quark Model
- ^ C. Amsler et al.. (2008): Particle listings –
D±
- ^ C. Amsler et al.. (2008): Particle listings –
D0
- ^ N. Nakamura et al. (2010): Particle listings –
D±
s - ^ C. Amsler et al.. (2008): Particle listings –
D∗±
(2010) - ^ C. Amsler et al.. (2008): Particle listings –
D∗0
(2007)