Statistics Bosonic Types 5 | Symbol D+, D+s, D0, D−s, D− | |
Composition D+: cdD+s: csD0: cu / ucD−s: scD−: dc Mass D±: 7003186962000000000♠1869.62±0.20 MeV/cD±s: 7003196847000000000♠1968.47±0.33 MeV/cD0: 7003186484000000000♠1864.84±0.17 MeV/c | ||
The D mesons are the lightest particle containing charm quarks. They are often studied to gain knowledge on the weak interaction. The strange D mesons (Ds) were called the "F mesons" prior to 1986.
Contents
Overview
The D mesons were discovered in 1976 by the Mark I detector at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.
Since the D mesons are the lightest mesons containing a single charm quark (or antiquark), they must change the charm (anti)quark into an (anti)quark of another type to decay. Such transitions involve a change of the internal charm quantum number, and can take place only via the weak interaction. In D mesons, the charm quark preferentially changes into a strange quark via an exchange of a W particle, therefore the D meson preferentially decays into
K
s and
π
s.
List of D mesons
[a] ^ PDG reports the resonance width (Γ). Here the conversion τ = ħ/Γ is given instead.