A member of a group of subatomic particles having a mass intermediate between electrons and protons. (The most easily detected mesons fit this definition.)
A class of hadronic particleswhich are exchanged between neutrons and protons inside the atomic nucleus and which bind the nucleus together Free mesons decay into photons and leptons
Any member of a family of subatomic particles composed of a quark and an antiquark (see antimatter). Mesons are sensitive to the strong force, have integral spin, and vary widely in mass. Though unstable, many mesons last a few billionths of a second, long enough to be observed with particle detectors. They are readily produced in the collisions of high-energy subatomic particles (e.g., in cosmic rays)
These particles are not fundamental These are made up of quarks and anti-quarks Mesons are a sub-category of hadrons; that is to say, all mesons are hadrons, but not all hadrons are mesons A meson is made up of a constituent quark and anti-quark pair These need not be the same flavor However, they must have opposite color charge, leaving the meson uncharged with respect to the strong interaction It could still be electrically or otherwise charged