During a new experiment, researchers from CERN managed to measure the charge-parity violation occurs in the charm quarks. According to the researchers, the statistical significance of the discovery reaches 5.3 σ which is above the classic gold standard of 5σ which is usually used for particles. The finding marks the first charge-parity violation which has been observed in charm quarks (mesons, in this case), opening the road towards physics which could be found outside the Standard Model. That also has implications in why there was more matter than antimatter soon after the Big Bang, something that led to the formation on the Universe as we know it today
By classic cosmological models, the Big Bang led to the appearance of equal amounts of matter and antimatter. The two would have been locked in a battle that should have resulted in annihilation, but the precise classification of matter in our universe proves that there is more to learn about the physics of the early universe.
Physicists observed the charge-parity violation in charm quarks for the first time
The hunger manifested by antimatter has been approached in theory developed by two Japanese researchers in 1973. The two scientists believed that the weak nuclear force, which can influence select types of radioactive decay, may be able to act differently when antimatter and matter are involved. The theory has contributed to the charge-parity violation, which means that the laws of physics do not work the same across all particles since they can vary slightly when we are looking at antiparticles and when the three directions of space are reversed at the same time.
The charge-parity violation was identified in 1964 within the premises of the Brookhaven National Laboratory which is located in the US. At that time the researchers found strange quarks in a type of particle called neutral K meson. Other experiments have also observed the phenomenon in neutral B-mesons.
In 2011 the Large Hadron Collider team discovered the first traces of what seemed to be a charge-parity violation in the D-mesons, a group f charm quarks, as they were trying to observe the decay of the meson and its antiparticle, but they were unable to reach a meaningful statistical significance until now. The results of the new experiment were published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Jasmine holds a Master’s in Journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto and writes professionally in a broad variety of genres. She has worked as a senior manager in public relations and communications for major telecommunication companies, and is the former Deputy Director for Media Relations with the Modern Coalition. Jasmine writes primarily in our LGBTTQQIAAP and Science section.