Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2022 May 12

= May 12 =

What happens if an antineutron and a proton collide?
An antineutron has one up antiquark and two down antiquarks, while the proton has two up quarks and one down quark. So will one up quark and one down antiquark survive in a two quark particle, a meson? Thanks, Rich (talk) 11:45, 12 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Yup, that's a pion. -- Jayron 32 15:13, 12 May 2022 (UTC)
 * You're likely to get a $$\pi^+$$. The annihilation of the other 4 (anti-)quarks will release enough energy (plus whatever kinetic energy is available) to create a bunch of other particles as well. The pion won't survive very long; it tends to decay to an antimuon and a neutrino in nanoseconds. Muons live long enough to survive flying out of your detector. In other words: collisions between baryons tend to be messy. PiusImpavidus (talk) 19:15, 12 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Collisions between barytons tend to be twangy. MinorProphet (talk) 09:54, 17 May 2022 (UTC)