J/psi particle

noun
/ˌdʒeɪ ˈsaɪ ˈpɑːtɪkl̩/UK/ˌdʒeɪ ˈsaɪ ˈpɑɹtɪkəl/US

Etymology

A compound of J, ψ (psi), and particle. The particle was discovered independently in 1974 by two research groups, leading to the "November Revolution" in particle physics. * The group led by Samuel Ting at Brookhaven National Laboratory proposed the name J, reputedly because the shape of the Chinese character for Ting (丁) resembles a J, though Ting also cited the symbol for electromagnetic current, j_μ(x), as a reason. * The group led by Burton Richter at SLAC proposed the name ψ (psi). Richter initially preferred "SP" (for the SPEAR accelerator), but chose "psi" as it contained "SP" in reverse order and was the only remaining Greek letter deemed suitable; coincidently, the particle's decay pattern in spark chambers resembled the letter ψ. The compromise name J/ψ was adopted to acknowledge both discoveries.

Definitions

  1. A subatomic particle with an unusually long lifetime (7.2 × 10⁻²¹ s) and a large mass…

    A subatomic particle with an unusually long lifetime (7.2 × 10⁻²¹ s) and a large mass (approx. 3.097 GeV/c²); a bound state of a charm quark and an anti-charm quark (the most common form of charmonium).

    • We report the observation of a heavy particle J, with mass m = 3.1 GeV and width approximately zero.
    • We denote this resonance as ψ(3105).

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for J/psi particle. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA