The Delta baryons (or Δ baryons, also called Delta resonances) are a family of subatomic particle made of three up or down quarks (u or d quarks).
Four Δ baryons exist:
Δ++
(constituent quarks: uuu),
Δ+
(uud),
Δ0
(udd), and
Δ−
(ddd), which respectively carry an electric charge of +2 e, +1 e, 0 e, and −1 e.
The Δ baryons have a mass of about , a 1232 MeV/c2spin of 3/2, and an isospin of 3/2. In many ways, a Δ baryon is an 'excited' nucleon (symbol N). Nucleons are made of the same constituent quarks, but they are in a lower-energy spin configuration (spin 1/2). The
Δ+
(uud) and
Δ0
(udd) particles are the higher-energy equivalent of the proton (
N+
, uud) and neutron (
N0
, udd), respectively. However, the
Δ++
and
Δ−
have no nucleon equivalent.