baryonnumbercarrying
Baryon-number carrying refers to any particle or system that has nonzero baryon number, a quantum number that counts baryons minus antibaryons. In the Standard Model, baryon number B is assigned as B = 1 for baryons (such as protons and neutrons), B = −1 for antibaryons, and B = 0 for mesons. Quarks carry fractional baryon number, B = 1/3, and antiquarks carry B = −1/3; the total baryon number of a composite particle is the sum of its constituents’ baryon numbers. This makes baryon-number carrying states the basic carriers of the baryon number carried by matter.
Baryon number is an approximately conserved quantity in perturbative processes of the Standard Model, meaning that
The concept is central to topics such as baryogenesis, which seeks to explain the matter–antimatter asymmetry
See also: baryon number, baryogenesis, proton decay, sphaleron, grand unified theories.