Stone and his team have now observed a new kind of decay process of the
B meson that had been previously theorized but never before seen.
The new result is based on seven years of studying trillions of short-lived particles called
B mesons produced at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory's Tevatron particle collider in Batavia, Ill.
If an additional mystery particle were produced in the decay, it would have to be much heavier than the
B meson that decayed in the first place.
This past year's precise lattice calculations indicate that such a method could be in the offing for
B meson studies.
It appears that we have established now that there is CP violation in the
B meson system," says David G.
Researchers are plunging ahead worldwide with large-scale
B meson investigations.
This is the first big step in our attempt to measure CP violation with
B mesons and thereby understand why the universe contains so much more matter than antimatter," said Caltech physicist David Hitlin, the spokesman of the BaBar collaboration.
based team has discovered another kind of CP violation, called direct CP violation, among
B mesons of the [B.
A pathway to an answer opened in the 1970s when theorists predicted that
B mesons also would exhibit CP violation.
Studies of the decay of particles and antiparticles known as
B mesons promise vital clues.
Once in full operation by the end of this summer, the colliders should make copious
B mesons, or Bs.
The competition to host the B Factory - a particle accelerator dedicated to the study of subatomic particles known as
B mesons - pitted the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) against Cornell University.
