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: Y_W Y_W = 2 (Q − T₃) X + 2Y_W = 5 (B − L) Flavour mixing CKM matrix PMNS matrix Flavour complementarity

In physics, bottomness (symbol B′) 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".

Bottomness

Further reading