Strangeness
Strangeness (S) is introduced to refine the understanding of the quark structure of matter.[1] It has unraveled a new property of particles, a quantum number describing a large group of strongly interacting strange particles.[2] Strangeness is an excited state of matter and its decay is governed by CKM mixing. The strangeness of a particle is defined as:
| Flavour in particle physics |
|---|
| Flavour quantum numbers |
|
| Related quantum numbers |
|
| Combinations |
|
| Flavour mixing |
where n
s
represents the number of strange quarks (
s
) and n
s
represents the number of strange antiquarks (
s
). Evaluation of strangeness production has become an important tool in search, discovery, observation and interpretation of quark–gluon plasma (QGP).[3]
The terms strange and strangeness predate the discovery of the quark, and were adopted after its discovery in order to preserve the continuity of the phrase; strangeness of anti-particles being referred to as +1, and particles as −1 as per the original definition. For all the quark flavour quantum numbers (strangeness, charm, topness and bottomness) the convention is that the flavour charge and the electric charge of a quark have the same sign. With this, any flavour carried by a charged meson has the same sign as its charge.
Conservation
Strangeness was introduced by Murray Gell-Mann, Abraham Pais and Kazuhiko Nishijima to explain the fact that certain particles, such as the kaons or the hyperons
Σ
and
Λ
, were created easily in particle collisions, yet decayed much more slowly than expected for their large masses and large production cross sections. Noting that collisions seemed to always produce pairs of these particles, it was postulated that a new conserved quantity, dubbed "strangeness", was preserved during their creation, but not conserved in their decay.[4]
In our modern understanding, strangeness is conserved during the strong and the electromagnetic interactions, but not during the weak interactions. Consequently, the lightest particles containing a strange quark cannot decay by the strong interaction, and must instead decay via the much slower weak interaction. In most cases these decays change the value of the strangeness by one unit. However, this doesn't necessarily hold in second-order weak reactions, where there are mixes of
K0
and
K0
mesons. All in all, the amount of strangeness can change in a weak interaction reaction by +1, 0 or -1 (depending on the reaction).
For example, the interaction of a K− meson with a proton is represented as:
Here strangeness is conserved and the interaction proceeds via the strong nuclear force.[5]
However, in reactions like the decay of the positive kaon:
Since both pions have a strangeness of 0, this violates conservation of strangeness, meaning the reaction must go via the weak force.[5]
References
- Jacob, Maurice (1992). The Quark Structure of Matter. World Scientific Lecture Notes in Physics. 50. World Scientific. doi:10.1142/1653. ISBN 978-981-02-0962-9.
- Tanabashi, M.; Hagiwara, K.; Hikasa, K.; Nakamura, K.; Sumino, Y.; Takahashi, F.; Tanaka, J.; Agashe, K.; Aielli, G.; Amsler, C.; Antonelli, M. (2018-08-17). "Review of Particle Physics". Physical Review D. 98 (3): 030001. Bibcode:2018PhRvD..98c0001T. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.98.030001. ISSN 2470-0010. PMID 10020536.
pages 1188 (Mesons), 1716 ff (Baryons)
- Margetis, Spyridon; Safarík, Karel; Villalobos Baillie, Orlando (2000). "Strangeness Production in Heavy-Ion Collisions". Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science. 50 (1): 299–342. Bibcode:2000ARNPS..50..299S. doi:10.1146/annurev.nucl.50.1.299. ISSN 0163-8998.
- Griffiths, David J. (David Jeffery), 1942- (1987). Introduction to elementary particles. New York: Wiley. ISBN 0-471-60386-4. OCLC 19468842.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1968". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 2020-03-15.