NEWS – Recently, physicists at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment reported confirmed evidence of Charge-Parity (CP) violation in a class of particles called baryons.

HIGHLIGHTS

What is the Discovery?

• Physicists at CERN’s LHCb experiment confirmed Charge-Parity (CP) violation in baryons for the first time.
• Discovery marks a major step in understanding the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe.
• First statistically significant CP violation observation in lambda-b (Λb) baryons.

Understanding the Basics

Matter:

• Anything with mass and volume.
• Composed of atoms and molecules.
• Exists in states: Solid, Liquid, Gas, and other exotic forms like Plasma and Bose-Einstein Condensate.

Antimatter:

• Comprises particles with properties opposite to matter:
  • Electron → Positron
  • Proton → Antiproton
  • Neutron → Antineutron
• Formed in equal amounts with matter during the Big Bang.
• Annihilation with matter releases gamma rays.

CP Violation: Key Concept

• CP Symmetry: A combination of:
  • Charge Conjugation (C): Converts particles to antiparticles.
  • Parity Transformation (P): Mirror image reflection of spatial coordinates.
• CP violation occurs when matter and antimatter behave differently, violating expected symmetry.
• It provides an explanation for why the universe is dominated by matter.

Baryons and the LHCb Discovery

• Baryons: Particles made of three quarks (e.g., protons, neutrons).
• Their counterparts, antibaryons, consist of three antiquarks.
• The lambda-b (Λb) baryon, containing up, down, and bottom quarks, was analyzed.
• Observed decay pattern differences between Λb and its antimatter version → evidence of CP violation.

Significance of the Discovery

• The result crosses the five-sigma threshold, a gold standard in physics for confirming discoveries.
• Could pave the way for solving the mystery of matter dominance in the universe.
• Reinforces the role of CERN and LHCb in cutting-edge particle physics.