Question

The only combination of quark colours that produces a white baryon is RGB. Identify all the colour combinations that can produce a white meson.

Short answer

All the colour combinations that can produce a white meson is \({\rm{R\bar R, R\bar G, G\bar R, B\bar R, G\bar G, R\bar B, G\bar B, B\bar G, B\bar B}}\).

Step-by-step solution

Concept Introduction

Mesons are hadronic subatomic particles made up of an equal number of quarks and antiquarks, generally one of each, and linked together by strong interactions in particle physics.

A baryon is a form of composite subatomic particle in particle physics that has an odd number of valence quarks.

Colour combinations to produce white meson

Figure out the possible colour combinations for meson that can produce white colour. Since, the colours available are Red, Green, and Blue. Knowing that the meson constructs from quark and anti-quark, this gives the following possible combinations –

\({\rm{R\bar R}}\)	\({\rm{R\bar G}}\)	\({\rm{G\bar R}}\)	\({\rm{B\bar R}}\)
\({\rm{G\bar G}}\)	\({\rm{R\bar B}}\)	\({\rm{G\bar B}}\)	\({\rm{B\bar G}}\)
\({\rm{B\bar B}}\)

Therefore, the colour combination is \({\rm{R\bar R, R\bar G, G\bar R, B\bar R, G\bar G, R\bar B, G\bar B, B\bar G, B\bar B}}\).