What makes up mesons and baryons

The three classes of particles are hadrons, mesons and baryons. First off, all three terms identify classes of particles. Hadrons are particles that experience the strong nuclear force. This means that they contain quarks. A baryon is a type of hadron, and it contains three quarks. A meson is also a type of hadron, and it contains one quark and one antiquark. Making an analogy to the animal kingdom, the term hadron corresponds to the term animal, while the terms meson and baryon might correspond to the classifications mammal and reptile.

Historically, the name baryon implied a heavy subatomic particle, while the term meson was given to particles with much lower masses. In the s, the identification of baryons as heavy particles and mesons as particles of intermediate mass was absolute.

But the discovery of the heavier charm and bottom quark ruined that connection—it turned out they could make up mesons that were heavier than the earliest-discovered baryons. Thus in the modern world, the quark content is the only thing that identifies a hadron as a baryon or a meson.

That is, it is their quark and gluon constituents that carry the charge of the strong force, not the mesons and baryons that comprise them. However, both these particles belong to the family of hadrons.

These are intermediate mass particles of atoms. All these particles are made of quarks. Quarks are the building blocks that make up all the matter. Therefore, these are elementary particles. Overview and Key Difference 2. What are Baryons 3. What are Mesons 4. Baryons are composite subatomic particles that have three quark particles. These particles fall under the category of fermions since these particles have a half-integer spin. Since it has quarks, baryons can participate in strong interactions strong nuclear force.

The most common examples of baryons are protons and neutrons. Generally, we consider baryons as massive particles when compared to other subatomic particles. Other examples for these particles include lambda, sigma, xi and omega particles. Baryons make up most of the mass of visible matter. For instance, protons and neutrons are baryons; these two particles are the major components of atoms, and atoms are the smallest unit of all matter.

The difference is that leptons do not interact via strong force. Mesons are hadronic subatomic particles that have a pair of quark and antiquark. Mesons come under the category of bosons.