Omega baryon

"Omega particle" redirects here. For usage of the term in Star Trek, see The Omega Directive.
Not to be confused with Omega meson.

Bubble chamber trace of the first observed Ω baryon event at Brookhaven National Laboratory, adapted from original tracing. The tracks of neutral particles (dashed lines) are not visible in the bubble chamber. The collision of a K− meson with a proton creates an Ω−, a K0 and a K+. The Ω− decays into a π− and a Ξ0, which in turn decays into a Λ0 and a π0. The Λ0 decays into a proton and a π−. The π0, invisible due to its short lifetime, decays into two photons (γ), which in turn each create an electron-positron pair.

Omega baryons (often called simply Omega particles) are a family of subatomic hadrons which are represented by the symbol
Ω
 and are either charge neutral or have a +2, +1 or −1 elementary charge. Additionally, they contain no up or down quarks.[1] Omega baryons containing top quarks are also not expected to be observed. This is because the Standard Model predicts the mean lifetime of top quarks to be roughly 5×10−25 s,[2] which is about a twentieth of the timescale necessary for the strong interactions required for Hadronization, the process by which hadrons form from quarks and gluons.

The first omega baryon was the
Ω−
, it was made of three strange quarks, and was discovered in 1964.[3] The discovery was a great triumph in the study of quarks, since it was found only after its existence, mass, and decay products had been predicted in 1961 by the American physicist Murray Gell-Mann and, independently, by the Israeli physicist Yuval Ne'eman. Besides the
Ω−
, a charmed omega particle (
Ω0
c) was discovered in 1985, in which a strange quark is replaced by a charm quark. The
Ω−
 decays only via the weak interaction and has therefore a relatively long lifetime.[4] Spin (J) and parity (P) values for unobserved baryons are predicted by the quark model.[5]

Since omega baryons do not have any up or down quarks, they all have isospin 0.

  1. ^ Particle Data Group. "2010 Review of Particle Physics – Naming scheme for hadrons" (PDF). Retrieved 26 December 2011.
  2. ^ A. Quadt (2006). "Top quark physics at hadron colliders". European Physical Journal C. 48 (3): 835–1000. Bibcode:2006EPJC...48..835Q. doi:10.1140/epjc/s2006-02631-6. S2CID 121887478.
  3. ^ V. E. Barnes; et al. (1964). "Observation of a Hyperon with Strangeness Minus Three" (PDF). Physical Review Letters. 12 (8): 204. Bibcode:1964PhRvL..12..204B. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.12.204. OSTI 12491965.
  4. ^ R. Nave. "The Omega baryon". HyperPhysics. Retrieved 26 November 2009.
  5. ^ Körner, J.G; Krämer, M; Pirjol, D (1 January 1994). "Heavy baryons". Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics. 33: 787–868. arXiv:hep-ph/9406359. Bibcode:1994PrPNP..33..787K. doi:10.1016/0146-6410(94)90053-1. S2CID 118931787.