Bottomness

Flavour in particle physics

Flavour quantum numbers: Isospin: I or I3 Charm: C Strangeness: S Topness: T Bottomness: B′ Related quantum numbers: Baryon number: B Lepton number: L Weak isospin: T or T3 Electric charge: Q X-charge: X Combinations: Hypercharge: Y Y = (B + S + C + B′ + T) Y = 2 (Q − I3) Weak hypercharge: YW YW = 2 (Q − T3) X + 2YW = 5 (B − L) Flavour mixing CKM matrix PMNS matrix Flavour complementarity

In physics, bottomness (symbol B′^{[citation needed]}) also called beauty, is a flavour quantum number reflecting the difference between the number of bottom antiquarks (n_b) and the number of bottom quarks (n_b) that are present in a particle:

$B^\prime = -(n_b - n_{\bar b})$

Bottom quarks have (by convention) a bottomness of −1 while bottom antiquarks have a bottomness of +1. The convention is that the flavour quantum number sign for the quark is the same as the sign of the electric charge (symbol Q) of that quark (in this case, Q = −¹⁄₃).

As with other flavour-related quantum numbers, bottomness is preserved under strong and electromagnetic interactions, but not under weak interactions. For first-order weak reactions, it holds that $\Delta B^\prime = \plusmn 1$.

This term is rarely used. Most physicists simply refer to "the number of bottom quarks" and "the number of bottom antiquarks".

See also

• Isospin
• Strangeness
• Charm
• Topness
• Hypercharge

Further reading

• Lessons in Particle Physics Luis Anchordoqui and Francis Halzen, University of Wisconsin, 18th Dec. 2009