List of Baryons

List Of Baryons

Baryons are the family of composite particle made of three quarks, as opposed to the mesons which are the family of composite particles made of one quark and one antiquark. Both baryons and mesons are part of the larger particle family comprising all particles made of quarks – the hadron. The term baryon is derived from the Greek "βαρύς" (barys), meaning "heavy", because at the time of their naming it was believed that baryons were characterized by having greater masses than other particles that were classed as matter.

Until a few years ago, it was believed that some experiments showed the existence of pentaquarks – "exotic" baryons made of four quarks and one antiquark. The particle physics community as a whole did not view their existence as likely in 2006 and in 2008 considered evidence to be overwhelmingly against the existence of the reported pentaquarks.

Since baryons are composed of quarks, they participate in the strong interaction. Leptons on the other hand, are not composed of quarks and as such do not participate in the strong interaction. The most famous baryons are the protons and neutrons which make up most of the mass of the visible matter in the universe, whereas electrons (the other major component of atoms) are leptons. Each baryon has a corresponding antiparticle (antibaryon) where quarks are replaced by their corresponding antiquarks. For example, a proton is made of two up quarks and one down quark; and its corresponding antiparticle, the antiproton, is made of two up antiquarks and one down antiquark.