Eta and eta prime mesons

Eta and eta prime mesons
Composition
  • η : ≈
  • η : ≈
StatisticsBosonic
FamilyMesons
InteractionsStrong, Weak, Gravitation, Electromagnetic
Symbolη, η
AntiparticleSelf
DiscoveredAihud Pevsner et al. (1961)
Types2
Massη : 547.862±0.018 MeV/c2
η : 957.78±0.06 MeV/c2
Mean lifetimeη: (5.0±0.3)×10−19 s, η: (3.2±0.2)×10−21 s
Decays into
Electric charge0 e
Spin0
Isospin0
Hypercharge0
Parity-1
C parity+1

The eta (η) and eta prime meson (η) are isosinglet mesons made of a mixture of up, down and strange quarks and their antiquarks. The charmed eta meson (η
c
) and bottom eta meson (η
b
) are similar forms of quarkonium; they have the same spin and parity as the (light) η defined, but are made of charm quarks and bottom quarks respectively. The top quark is too heavy to form a similar meson, due to its very fast decay.