In physics, the Eightfold Way is a term coined by American physicist Murray Gell-Mann for a theory organizing subatomic baryons and mesons into octets (alluding to the Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism). The theory was independently proposed by Israeli physicist Yuval Ne'eman and led to the subsequent development of the quark model. Image File history File links Merge-arrow. ... In physics, the quark model is a classification scheme for hadrons in terms of their valence quarks, i. ... This is a discussion of a present category of science. ... Not to be confused with physician, a person who practices medicine. ... Murray Gell-Mann (born September 15, 1929 in Manhattan, New York City, USA) is an American physicist who received the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the theory of elementary particles. ... In particle physics, the baryons are a family of subatomic particles including the proton and the neutron (collectively called Greek barys, meaning heavy, as they are heavier than the other main groups of particles. ... Mesons of spin 1 form a nonet In particle physics, a meson is a strongly interacting boson, that is, it is a hadron with integral spin. ... The Dharma wheel, often used to represent the Noble Eightfold Path The Noble Eightfold Path (Pāli: Ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko maggo; Sanskrit: Ārya ṣṭāṅga mārgaḥ; Chinese: 八正道, Bāzhèngdào; Japanese: 八正道, Hasshōdō, Thai: อริยมรรคแปด, Ariya Mugg Paad, Mongolian qutuɣtan-u naiman gesigün-ü mör) is, in... A silhouette of a Buddha statue at Ayutthaya, Thailand. ... Yuval Neeman (May 14, 1925 – April 26, 2006), was an Israeli physicist and politician. ... In physics, the quark model is a classification scheme for hadrons in terms of their valence quarks, i. ...

The meson octet. Particles along the same horizontal line share the same strangeness, s, while those on the same diagonals share the same charge, q.

In addition to organizing the mesons and spin-1/2 baryons into octets, the principles of the Eightfold Way also applied to the spin-3/2 baryons, forming a decuplet. However, one of the particles of this decuplet had never been previously observed. Gell-Mann called this particle the Ω⁻ and predicted in 1962 that it would have a strangeness −3, electric charge −1 and a mass near 1680 MeV/c². In 1964 a particle closely matching these predictions was discovered by a particle accelerator group at Brookhaven, making the Eightfold Way a triumphant success. Gell-Mann went on to receive the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the theory of elementary particles. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Mesons of spin 1 form a nonet In particle physics, a meson is a strongly interacting boson, that is, it is a hadron with integral spin. ... In particle physics, strangeness, denoted as , is a property of particles, expressed as a quantum number for describing decay of particles in strong and electro-magnetic reactions, which occur in a short period of time. ... Electric charge is a fundamental conserved property of some subatomic particles, which determines their electromagnetic interaction. ... In physics, spin refers to the angular momentum intrinsic to a body, as opposed to orbital angular momentum, which is the motion of its center of mass about an external point. ... Year 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... In particle physics, strangeness, denoted as , is a property of particles, expressed as a quantum number for describing decay of particles in strong and electro-magnetic reactions, which occur in a short period of time. ... Electric charge is a fundamental conserved property of some subatomic particles, which determines their electromagnetic interaction. ... Also Nintendo emulator: 1964 (emulator). ... Synchrotrons are now mostly used for producing monochromatic high intensity X-ray beams; here, the synchrotron is the circular track, off which the beamlines branch. ... ≠ Aerial view of Brookhaven National Laboratory. ... Also: 1969 (Stargate SG-1) episode. ... Hannes Alfvén (1908–1995) accepting the Nobel Prize for his work on magnetohydrodynamics [1]. List of Nobel Prize laureates in Physics from 1901 to the present day. ... Thousands of particles explode from the collision point of two relativistic (100 GeV per nucleon) gold ions in the STAR detector of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. ...

The baryon decuplet

The baryon octet

The Eightfold Way may be understood in modern terms as a consequence of flavor symmetries between various kinds of quarks. Since the strong nuclear force is the same for quarks of any flavor, replacing one flavor of quark with another in a hadron should not alter its mass very much. Mathematically, this replacement may be described by elements of the group SU(3). The octets and other arrangements are representations of this group; for a more detailed explanation of this fact, see the article Particle physics and representation theory. Created using LaTeX. See talk page for more information. ... Created using LaTeX. See talk page for more information. ... Combinations of three u, d or s-quarks with a total spin of 3/2 form the so-called baryon decuplet. ... File links The following pages link to this file: Eightfold way (physics) Quark model Categories: GFDL images ... File links The following pages link to this file: Eightfold way (physics) Quark model Categories: GFDL images ... Combinations of three u, d or s-quarks with a total spin of 3/2 form the so-called baryon decuplet. ... In particle physics, flavor is a property of a fermion that identifies it, a label that specifies the name of the particle. ... The six flavours of quarks and their most likely decay modes. ... The strong nuclear force or strong interaction (also called color force or colour force) is a fundamental force of nature which affects only quarks and antiquarks, and is mediated by gluons in a similar fashion to how the electromagnetic force is mediated by photons. ... In mathematics, the special unitary group of degree n, denoted SU(n), is the group of n×n unitary matrices with unit determinant. ... In mathematics Representation theory is the name given to the study of standard representations of abstract mathematical structures. ... There is a natural connection, first discovered by Eugene Wigner, between the properties of particles, the representation theory of Lie groups and Lie algebras, and the symmetries of the universe. ...

References

• Griffiths, David (1987). Introduction to Elementary Particles. New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-60386-4.