Neutral particle facts for kids

In physics, a neutral particle is a particle with no electric charge.

Stable or long-lived neutral particles

Long-lived neutral particles do not decay for a very long time. Examples of such particles include photons, neutrons, and neutrinos.

Other neutral particles

Other neutral particles are very short-lived. They decay before they can be detected by a particle detector. They have been observed only indirectly, such as tracks of ionized particles in a particle accelerator. They include:

• Z bosons
• Dozens of heavy neutral hadrons:
  • Neutral mesons such as the pion and kaon
  • The neutral Delta baryon, and other neutral baryons, such as the xi baryon and lambda baryon

• K. Nakamura et al. (Particle Data Group), JP G 37, 075021 (2010) and 2011 partial update for the 2012 edition