Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source
00:10
00:09
00:08
00:07
00:06
00:05
00:04
00:03
00:02
00:01
| an instrument that produces a graphic, visible representation of sound |
| the smallest component of an element having the chemical properties of the element; the number of protons determines the identity of the element |
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
hyperon  (hī'pə-rŏn') Pronunciation Key
Any of various baryons, other than the proton and neutron, that do not decay via the strong force. The lambda particle is an example of a hyperon. Hyperons are unstable or semistable, heavier than protons and neutrons, and have nonzero strangeness. |
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
hyperon
quasi-stable member of a class of subatomic particles known as baryons that are composed of three quarks. More massive than their more-familiar baryon cousins, the nucleons (protons and neutrons), hyperons are distinct from them in that they contain one or more strange quarks. Hyperons, in order of increasing mass, include the lambda-zero (Lambda0) particle, a triplet of sigma (Sigma) particles, a doublet of xi (Xi) particles, and the omega-minus (Omega) particle. Each of the seven particles, detected during the period 1947-64, also has a corresponding antiparticle. The discovery of the omega-minus hyperon was suggested by the Eightfold Way of classifying hadrons, the more-general group of subatomic particles to which hyperons are assigned. Hadrons are composed of quarks and interact with one another via the strong force.
Learn more about hyperon with a free trial on Britannica.com.
Cite This Source
