Template:Short description Template:Distinguish Template:Infobox particle Template:AntimatterThe antineutron is the antiparticle of the neutron with symbol Template:SubatomicParticle. It differs from the neutron only in that some of its properties have equal magnitude but opposite sign. It has the same mass as the neutron, and no net electric charge, but has opposite baryon number (+1 for neutron, −1 for the antineutron). This is because the antineutron is composed of antiquarks, while neutrons are composed of quarks. The antineutron consists of one up antiquark and two down antiquarks.
BackgroundEdit
The antineutron was discovered in proton–antiproton collisions at the Bevatron (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) by the team of Bruce Cork, Glen Lambertson, Oreste Piccioni, and William Wenzel in 1956,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> one year after the antiproton was discovered.
Since the antineutron is electrically neutral, it cannot easily be observed directly. Instead, the products of its annihilation with ordinary matter are observed. In theory, a free antineutron should decay into an antiproton, a positron, and a neutrino in a process analogous to the beta decay of free neutrons. There are theoretical proposals of neutron–antineutron oscillations, a process that implies the violation of the baryon number conservation.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> There is a project to search for neutron-antineutron oscillations using ultracold neutrons.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Magnetic momentEdit
The magnetic moment of the antineutron is the opposite of that of the neutron.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It is Template:Val for the antineutron but Template:Val for the neutron (relative to the direction of the spin). Here μN is the nuclear magneton.
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- LBL Particle Data Group: summary tables
- suppression of neutron-antineutron oscillation
- Elementary particles: includes information about antineutron discovery (archived link)
- "Is Antineutron the Same as Neutron?" explains how the antineutron differs from the regular neutron despite having the same, that is zero, charge.