Vector meson

In high energy physics, a vector meson is a meson with total spin 1 and odd parity (usually noted as J = 1). Compare to a pseudovector meson, which has a total spin 1 and even parity.

Vector mesons have been seen in experiments since the 1960s, and are well known for their spectroscopic pattern of masses. Since the development of the quark model by Murray Gell-Mann (and independently by George Zweig as well), the vector mesons have demonstrated the spectroscopy of pure states. The fact that the I = 1 rho meson (ρ) and I = 0 omega meson (ω) have nearly equal mass centered on 770–7002780000000000000♠780 MeV/c, while the phi meson (φ) has a higher mass around 7003102000000000000♠1020 MeV/c, indicates that the light-quark vector mesons appear in nearly pure states with the φ meson having a nearly 100 percent amplitude of hidden strangeness.