Question

When a${\mathbf{\pi }}^{\mathbf{0}}$decays to two photons, what happens to the quarks of which it was made?

Short answer

The two quarks annihilate each other, thus, releasing the two gamma photons.

Step-by-step solution

Determine what happens to the quarks

The ${\mathrm{\pi }}^0$meson consists of$u\overline{u}ord\overline{d}$, this means it consists of a quark and its anti-quark. Due to the annihilation of the matter quark $\left(uord\right)$with the antimatter quark$\left(\overline{u}or\overline{d}\right)$ .

Therefore, the two quarks annihilate each other, thus, releasing the two gamma photons.