| Baryons, such as protons and neutrons, are matter particles made of three quarks. Their current nomenclature is based on the concept of isospin, introduced by Werner Heisenberg in 1932 to explain the similarity between the masses of protons and neutrons, as well as the similarity of their behaviour under the strong interaction. It is a refinement of a nomenclature designed in 1964, before the acceptance of the quark model, for light baryons.;A historical review of baryon physics before the advent of the quark model is given to understand the motivations behind the light baryon nomenclature. Then, an overview of the quark model is given to understand the extensions done to this nomenclature in 1986, as well as to understand the physics of baryons and of properties such as isospin and flavour quantum numbers. Since baryon properties are in general explained by the quark model, a nomenclature based on isospin leads to several issues of physics and of clarity.;To resolve these issues, the concepts of isospin and mass groups are generalized to all flavours of quarks, the Gell-Mann--Okubo formalism is extended to generalized mass groups, and a baryon nomenclature based on the quark model, reflecting modern knowledge, is proposed. |
