The mesons are composed of a quark, and an antiquark. This family has an integral spin, which makes these particles bosons as well.
Another characteristic of these particles is they are color neutral objects. This occurs because the quark and antiquark have opposite color charges. Also, all mesons are unstable.
The six basic types of mesons are listed in the chart below. Remember, for each meson there is an antimatter meson. There are more types of meson than mention on the chart.
The unit used for the mass of the mesons is measured in GeV/c2. This stands for Giga (109 or a billion) electron volts per speed of light squared.
Below are some members of the meson family:
Meson |
Symbol |
Quarks |
Mass (GeV/c2) |
Electric Charge |
Pion (+) |
p+ |
up and an antidown |
0.140 |
+ 1 |
Kaon (+) |
K + |
strange and an antiup |
0.494 |
- 1 |
Kaon (zero) |
K 0 |
down and an antistrange |
0.498 |
0 |
Rho (+) |
r |
up and an antidown |
0.770 |
+ 1 |
D (+) |
D + |
charm and an antidown |
1.869 |
+ 1 |
Eta-c |
h |
charm and an anticharm |
2.980 |
0 |