Observation of charge-parity symmetry breaking in baryon decays

Abstract

The Standard Model of particle physics-the theory of particles and interactions at the smallest scale-predicts that matter and antimatter interact differently due to violation of the combined symmetry of charge conjugation ($C$) and parity ($P$). Charge conjugation transforms particles into their antimatter particles, whereas the parity transformation inverts spatial coordinates. This prediction applies to both mesons, which consist of a quark and an antiquark, and baryons, which are composed of three quarks. However, despite having been discovered in various meson decays, $CP$ violation has yet to be observed in baryons, the type of matter that makes up the observable Universe. Here we report a study of the decay of the beauty baryon ${\Lambda }_b^0$ to the $p{K}^{-}{\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}$ final state and its $CP$-conjugated process, using data collected by the Large Hadron Collider beauty experiment at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The results reveal significant asymmetries between the decay rates of the ${\Lambda }_b^0$ baryon and its $CP$-conjugated antibaryon, providing, to our knowledge, the first observation of $CP$ violation in baryon decays and demonstrating the different behaviours of baryons and antibaryons. In the Standard Model, $CP$ violation arises from the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa mechanism, and new forces or particles beyond the Standard Model could provide additional contributions. This discovery opens a new path in the search for physics beyond the Standard Model.

arXiv commentAll figures and tables, along with machine-readable versions and any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lbfence.cern.ch/alcm/public/analysis/full-details/3653 (LHCb public pages)

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