1.
[syn: meson, mesotron]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Meson \Mes"on\, n. [NL., fr. Gr. me`son middle, neut. of me`sos,
a., middle.]
1. (Anat.) The mesial plane dividing the body of an animal
into similar right and left halves. The line in which it
meets the dorsal surface has been called the dorsimeson,
and the corresponding ventral edge the ventrimeson. --B.
G. Wilder.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Physics) An elementary particle made up of two quarks; a
hadron having a baryon number of zero; any hadron other
than a baryon. Mesons are bosons with integral values of
spin, having a mass intermediate between those of the
electron and a nucleon; they may have positive or negative
charges, or may be neutral. Mesons are of three types: the
pion ([pi]-meson), kaon (K-mesons), and
[eta]-mesons.
[PJC]
mu meson (Physics) the former name for the muon, a
particle which is not a true meson[2]. The term is no
longer used in technical literature, except historically.
[PJC]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
meson
n 1: an elementary particle responsible for the forces in the
atomic nucleus; a hadron with a baryon number of 0 [syn:
meson, mesotron]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
38 Moby Thesaurus words for "meson":
Kern, NMR, alpha particle, antibaryon, antilepton, antimeson, atom,
atomic nucleus, atomic particle, aurora particle, baryon,
beta particle, electron, elementary particle, heavy particle, ion,
lepton, mesotron, molecule, monad, neutron, nuclear force,
nuclear magnetic resonance, nuclear particle, nuclear resonance,
nucleon, nucleosynthesis, nucleus, photon, proton, quark,
radioactive particle, radion, solar particle, strangeness,
strong interaction, triton, valence electron