muon

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English

Etymology

Contraction of the earlier term mu-meson; the particle has now been recategorised as a lepton. Coined by Italian physicist Enrico Fermi in 1951 in his book Elementary Particles.

Pronunciation

Noun

muon (plural muons)

  1. (physics) An unstable elementary particle in the lepton family, having similar properties to the electron but with a mass 207 times greater.
    • 1951, Enrico Fermi, Elementary Particles:
      The μ-meson of Powell (called here muon) is instead a disintegration product of the pion, only weakly linked to the nucleons and therefore of little importance in the explanation of nuclear forces.
    • 1955 March, CP Sargent, “Diffusion Cloud-Chamber Study of Very Slow Mesons”, in Physical Review:
      The spectrum of electrons arising from the decay of the negative mu meson has been determined. The muons are arrested in the gas of a high pressure hydrogen filled diffusion cloud chamber.

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Dutch

Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nl

Etymology

Contraction of mu-meson

Pronunciation

  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: mu‧on

Noun

muon n (plural muonen)

  1. (physics) muon

Esperanto

Noun

muon

  1. accusative singular of muo