In particle physics, Ξ (Xi) is a name given to a range of baryons with one up or down quark and two heavier quarks. They are sometimes called the cascade particles because of their unstable state, they decay rapidly into lighter particles through a chain of decays. The first discovery of the Xi particle was at Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1964.[1]
The Ξ−b particle is also known as the cascade B particle and contains quarks from all three families. It was discovered by D0 and CDF experiments at Fermilab. The discovery was announced on June 12, 2007. It was the first known particle made of quarks from all three quark families -- namely, a down quark, a strange quark, and a bottom quark. D0 experiment reported mass of the new state to be 5.774±0.19 GeV/c2; and CDF measured the mass at 5.7929±0.3 GeV/c2. The two results are consistent with each other. The official Particle Data Group world average mass is 5.7924±0.3 GeV/c2.
When unspecified, the non-up/down quark make up of Xi baryons is strange. Thus a Ξ0b is a up/strange/bottom Xi, and a Ξ0bb is a up/bottom/bottom Xi.
[a] Some controversy exists about this data. See references [b] This is actually a measurement of the average lifetime of b-baryons that decay to a jet containing a same sign Ξ±l± pair. Presumably the mix is mainly Ξb, with some Λb.
† Particle (or quantity, i.e. spin) has neither been observed nor indicated.