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The charm quark
Quark

Quarks are a type of elementary particle and major constituents of matter. They are the only particles in the Standard Model to experience all four fundamental interaction, which are also known as fundamental interactions....
 is a second-generation quark with an electric charge of + e
Elementary charge

The elementary charge, usually denoted e, is the electric charge carried by a single proton, or equivalently, the negative of the electric charge carried by a single electron....
. It is the third most massive of the quarks, at about (roughly one and a half times the mass of the proton
Proton

The proton is a subatomic particle with an electric charge of +1 elementary charge. It is found in the nucleus of each atom but is also stable by itself and has a second identity as the hydrogen ion, H+....
). It was predicted in 1964 by Glashow and Bjorken, and first observed in November 1974, with the simultaneous discovery of the charm particle at SLAC
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a United States Department of Energy United States Department of Energy National Laboratories operated by Stanford University under the programmatic direction of the U.S....
 (Stanford Linear Accererator Center) by a group led by Burton Richter
Burton Richter

Burton Richter is a Nobel Prize-winning United States physicist....
 and at BNL
Brookhaven National Laboratory

Brookhaven National Laboratory , is a United States United States Department of Energy National Labs located in Upton, New York on Long Island, and was formally established in 1947 at the site of Camp Upton, a former U.S....
 (Brookhaven National Laboratory) by a group led by Samuel C. C. Ting
Samuel C. C. Ting

Samuel Chao Chung Ting is an United States physicist who received the Nobel Prize in 1976, with Burton Richter, for discovering the Subatomic particle J/? particle....
.






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Encyclopedia


The charm quark
Quark

Quarks are a type of elementary particle and major constituents of matter. They are the only particles in the Standard Model to experience all four fundamental interaction, which are also known as fundamental interactions....
 is a second-generation quark with an electric charge of + e
Elementary charge

The elementary charge, usually denoted e, is the electric charge carried by a single proton, or equivalently, the negative of the electric charge carried by a single electron....
. It is the third most massive of the quarks, at about (roughly one and a half times the mass of the proton
Proton

The proton is a subatomic particle with an electric charge of +1 elementary charge. It is found in the nucleus of each atom but is also stable by itself and has a second identity as the hydrogen ion, H+....
). It was predicted in 1964 by Glashow and Bjorken, and first observed in November 1974, with the simultaneous discovery of the charm particle at SLAC
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a United States Department of Energy United States Department of Energy National Laboratories operated by Stanford University under the programmatic direction of the U.S....
 (Stanford Linear Accererator Center) by a group led by Burton Richter
Burton Richter

Burton Richter is a Nobel Prize-winning United States physicist....
 and at BNL
Brookhaven National Laboratory

Brookhaven National Laboratory , is a United States United States Department of Energy National Labs located in Upton, New York on Long Island, and was formally established in 1947 at the site of Camp Upton, a former U.S....
 (Brookhaven National Laboratory) by a group led by Samuel C. C. Ting
Samuel C. C. Ting

Samuel Chao Chung Ting is an United States physicist who received the Nobel Prize in 1976, with Burton Richter, for discovering the Subatomic particle J/? particle....
. The particle was named J by the BNL group and ? by the SLAC group; when the naming controversy could not be resolved, the compromise was adopted. The quark itself derived its name from the "charmed" life the leads, having a half-life a thousand times longer than had been predicted theoretically.

Hadrons containing charm quarks

Some of the hadrons containing charm quarks include:
  • D meson
    D meson

    The D mesons are the lightest particle containing charm quarks. They are often studied to gain knowledge on the weak interaction. ...
    s contain a charm quark (or its antiparticle
    Antiparticle

    Corresponding to most kinds of particle physics, there is an associated antiparticle with the same mass and opposite electric charge. For example, the antiparticle of the electron is the positively charged antielectron, or positron, which is produced naturally in certain types of radioactive decay....
    ) and an up
    Up quark

    The up quark is a particle described by the Standard Model theory of physics. It is a first-generation quark with a charge of +elementary charge....
     or down quark
    Down quark

    The down quark is a first-generation quark with a charge of - elementary charge. It is the second-lightest of all the six flavour of quarks, the lightest being the up quark....
    .
  • mesons contain a charm quark and a strange quark
    Strange quark

    The strange quark is a second-generation quark with a charge of −elementary charge and a strangeness of −1. It is the third-lightest quark after the up quark and down quarks, with a mass of somewhere between 80 and 130 MeV....
    .
  • There are many charmonium states, for example the particle. These consist of a charm quark and its antiparticle.
  • Charmed baryons have been observed, and are named in analogy with strange baryons (e.g. ).