What is interesting in eta and eta' Meson Decays?

Abstract

An introduction to the physics of eta and eta' meson decays is given. A historical account of the discovery of the mesons is presented. It is followed by an overview and classification of the common decay modes and the relevance of the mesons for modern hadron and particle physics. In more detail the hadronic decay modes are discussed and in particular some interesting features of the eta-> 3pi0 decay are presented. The last section briefly reviews and compares reactions used to produce the eta and eta' mesons for the studies of their decays.