| Composition |
|
|---|---|
| Statistics | Bosonic |
| Family | Mesons |
| Interactions | Strong,weak,electromagnetic,gravitational |
| Symbol | D+ ,D− ,D0 ,D0 ,D+ s,D− s |
| Antiparticle |
|
| Discovered | SLAC (1976) |
| Mass | |
| Mean lifetime |
|
| Electric charge |
|
| Spin | 0 ħ |
| Strangeness |
|
| Charm | +1 |
| Isospin |
|
| Parity | −1 |
TheD mesons are the lightest particle that containcharm quarks. They are often studied to gain knowledge on theweak interaction.[1] Thestrange D mesons (Ds) were called "F mesons" prior to 1986.[2]
The D mesons were discovered in 1976 by theMark I detector at theStanford Linear Accelerator Center.[3]
Since the D mesons are the lightest mesons containing a single charmquark (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 internalcharm quantum number, and can take place only via theweak interaction. In D mesons, the charm quark preferentially changes into a strange quark via an exchange of aW particle, therefore the D meson preferentially decays intokaons (K) andpions (π).[1]
| Particle name | Particle symbol | Antiparticle symbol | Quark content[4] | Rest mass [MeV/c2] | I | JP | S | C | B′ | Mean lifetime [s] | Commonly decays to (>5% of decays) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charged D meson[5] | D+ | D− | cd | 1869.62±0.20 | 1/2 | 0− | 0 | +1 | 0 | (1.040±0.007)×10−12 | [6] |
| Neutral D meson[7] | D0 | D0 | cu | 1864.84±0.17 | 1/2 | 0− | 0 | +1 | 0 | (4.101±0.015)×10−13 | [8] |
| Strange D meson[9] | D+ s | D− s | cs | 1968.47±0.33 | 0 | 0− | +1 | +1 | 0 | (5.00±0.07)×10−13 | [10] |
| Excited charged D meson[11] | D∗+ (2010) | D∗− (2010) | cd | 2010.27±0.17 | 1/2 | 1− | 0 | +1 | 0 | (6.9±1.9)×10−21‡ | D0 +π+ or D+ +π0 |
| Excited neutral D meson[12] | D∗0 (2007) | D∗0 (2007) | cu | 2006.97±0.19 | 1/2 | 1− | 0 | +1 | 0 | > 3.1×10−22‡ | D0 +π0 or D0 +γ |
‡^ PDG reports the resonance width (). Here the conversion is given instead.
In 2019, an analysis by theLHCb experiment reported the first observation ofCP violation in the decays of the neutralD0
meson, with a significance of over fivestandard deviations.[13] The results of a subsequent data analysis by the same collaboration was presented in 2022, which announced that they found evidence of directCP violation in the decay of theD0
meson intopions.[14]
In 2021 it was confirmed with a significance of more than sevenstandard deviations, that the neutralD0
meson spontaneously transforms into its own antiparticle and back. This phenomenon is calledflavor oscillation and was prior known to exist in the neutralK meson andB meson.[15]
Published 2021 inPhysical Review Letters127, 111801. Report numbers: LHCb-PAPER-2021-009, CERN-EP-2021-099.