Anderson’s particle was called a “mu-meson”, soon abbreviated to “muon”. Powell’s particle was called a “pi-meson”, soon abbreviated to “pion”. With the discovery of the pion, Yukawa’s theory was nailed down and any lingering doubt as to the validity of the proton-neutron theory vanished.
C. F. Powell
(Actually, it turns out that there are two forces. The one with the pion as exchange particle is the “strong nuclear interaction”. Another, involved in beta particle emission, for instance, is a “weak interaction”, much weaker than the electromagnetic but stronger than the gravitational.)
The working out of the details of the strong nuclear interaction explains further the vast energies to be found resulting from nuclear reactions. Ordinary chemical reactions, with the electron shifts that accompany them, involve the electromagnetic interaction only. Nuclear energy, with the shifts of the particles inside the nucleus, involves the much stronger nuclear interaction.
Neutron Bombardment
As soon as neutrons were discovered, it seemed to physicists that they had another possible bombarding particle of extraordinary properties. Since the neutron lacked any electric charge, it could not be repelled by either electrons on the outside of the atoms or by the nuclei at the center. The neutron was completely indifferent to the electromagnetic attraction and it just moved along in a straight line. If it happened to be headed toward a nucleus it would strike it no matter how heavy a charge that nucleus might have and very often it would, as a result, induce a nuclear reaction where a proton would not have been able to.
J. Robert Oppenheimer
To be sure, it seemed just at first that there was a disadvantage to the neutron’s lack of charge. It could not be accelerated directly by any device since that always depended on electromagnetic interaction to which the neutron was impervious.