Omega meson

The most common decay mode for the ω meson is π⁺
π⁰
π⁻
at 89.2%±0.7%, followed by π⁰
γ at 8.34%±0.26%.^[6]

The quark composition of the ω meson can be thought of as a mix between uu, dd and ss states, but it is very nearly a pure symmetric uu–dd state. This can be shown by deconstructing the wave function of the ω into its component parts. We see that the ω and ϕ mesons are mixtures of the SU(3) wave functions as follows.^[7]

${\displaystyle \omega =\psi _{8}\sin \theta +\psi _{1}\cos \theta }$,

${\displaystyle \phi =\psi _{8}\cos \theta -\psi _{1}\sin \theta }$,

where

${\displaystyle \theta }$ is the nonet mixing angle,

${\displaystyle \psi _{1}={\frac {u{\overline {u}}+d{\overline {d}}+s{\overline {s}}}{\sqrt {3}}}}$ and

${\displaystyle \psi _{8}={\frac {u{\overline {u}}+d{\overline {d}}-2s{\overline {s}}}{\sqrt {6}}}}$.

The mixing angle at which the components decouple completely can be calculated to be ${\textstyle \arctan {\frac {1}{\sqrt {2}}}\approx 35.3^{\circ }}$, which almost corresponds to the actual value calculated from the masses of 35°. Therefore, the ω meson is nearly a pure symmetric uu–dd state.

• List of mesons
• Quark model
• Vector meson