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The antineutron is the antiparticle of the neutron with symbol . It differs from the neutron only in that some of its properties have additive inverse. It has the same mass as the neutron, and no net electric charge, but has opposite baryon number (+1 for neutron, −1 for the antineutron). This is because the antineutron is composed of , while neutrons are composed of . The antineutron consists of one up antiquark and two .
Since the antineutron is electrically neutral, it cannot easily be observed directly. Instead, the products of its annihilation with ordinary matter are observed. In theory, a free antineutron should particle decay into an antiproton, a positron, and a neutrino in a process analogous to the beta decay of . There are theoretical proposals of neutron–antineutron oscillations, a process that implies the violation of the baryon number conservation. There is a project to search for neutron-antineutron oscillations using ultracold neutrons.
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