LHCb sees a new flavour of matter–antimatter asymmetry

The LHCb collaboration has observed a breakdown of CP symmetry in the decays of the D0 meson
A CP-symmetry transformation swaps a particle with the mirror image of its antiparticle. (Image: CERN)

The LHCb collaboration at CERN has seen, for the first time, the matter–antimatter asymmetry known as CP violation in a particle dubbed the D0 meson. The finding, presented at the annual Rencontres de Moriond conference in 2019 and in a dedicated CERN seminar, is sure to make it into the textbooks of particle physics.

CP violation is an essential feature of our universe, necessary to induce the processes that, following the Big Bang, established the abundance of matter over antimatter that we observe in the present-day universe.

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