pions....?

Question

so out of the three types of pions one confuses me, π0. its make of an up quark and anti-up quark, or a down quark and an anti-down quark. how does that work? wouldnt they annihilate eachother.

Answer 1

Well, the two antiparticles DO annihilate each other. Pi-zero pions have a mean lifetime of about 8.4 x 10^-17 seconds, which is a full nine orders of magnitude briefer than the mean lifetimes of Pi-plus and Pi-minus.

Cool trivia about Pi-zero pions: they are their own antiparticles.