Composition |
|
---|---|
Statistics | Bosonic |
Family | Mesons |
Interactions | Strong, Weak, Gravitational, Electromagnetic |
Symbol | B+ , B− , B0 , B0 , B0 s, B0 s, B+ c, B− c |
Antiparticle |
|
Mass |
|
Mean lifetime |
|
Electric charge | |
Spin | 0 |
Strangeness | B0 s: −1 |
Charm | B+ c: +1 |
Bottomness | +1 |
Isospin |
|
Parity | −1 |
In particle physics, B mesons are mesons composed of a bottom antiquark and either an up (
B+
), down (
B0
), strange (
B0
s) or charm quark (
B+
c). The combination of a bottom antiquark and a top quark is not thought to be possible because of the top quark's short lifetime. The combination of a bottom antiquark and a bottom quark is not a B meson, but rather bottomonium , which is something else entirely.
Each B meson has an antiparticle that is composed of a bottom quark and an up (
B−
), down (
B0
), strange (
B0
s) or charm (
B−
c) antiquark respectively.
Particle | Symbol | Anti- particle | Quark content | Charge | Isospin (I) | Spin and parity, (J P ) | Rest mass (MeV/c 2) | S | C | B' | Mean lifetime (s) | Commonly decays to |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Charged B meson | B+ | B− | u b | +1 | 1/2 | 0− | 5279.34±0.12 | 0 | 0 | +1 | (1.638±0.004)×10−12 | See B± decay modes |
Neutral B meson | B0 | B0 | d b | 0 | 1/2 | 0− | 5279.65±0.12 | 0 | 0 | +1 | (1.519±0.004)×10−12 | See B0 decay modes |
Strange B meson | B0 s | B0 s | s b | 0 | 0 | 0− | 5366.88±0.14 | −1 | 0 | +1 | (1.515±0.004)×10−12 | See B0 s decay modes |
Charmed B meson | B+ c | B− c | c b | +1 | 0 | 0− | 6274.9±0.8 | 0 | +1 | +1 | (0.510±0.009)×10−12 | See B± c decay modes |
The neutral B mesons,
B0
and
B0
s, spontaneously transform into their own antiparticles and back. This phenomenon is called flavor oscillation. The existence of neutral B meson oscillations is a fundamental prediction of the Standard Model of particle physics. It has been measured in the
B0
–
B0
system to be about 0.496 / picoseconds , [1] and in the
B0
s–
B0
s system to be Δms = 17.77 ± 0.10 (stat) ± 0.07 (syst) / picosecond measured by CDF experiment at Fermilab. [2] A first estimation of the lower and upper limit of the
B0
s–
B0
s system value have been made by the DØ experiment also at Fermilab. [3]
On 25 September 2006, Fermilab announced that they had claimed discovery of previously-only-theorized
B0
s meson oscillation. [4] According to Fermilab's press release:
This first major discovery of Run 2 continues the tradition of particle physics discoveries at Fermilab, where the bottom (1977) and top (1995) quarks were discovered. Surprisingly, the bizarre behavior of the
B0
s (pronounced "B sub s") mesons is actually predicted by the Standard Model of fundamental particles and forces. The discovery of this oscillatory behavior is thus another reinforcement of the Standard Model's durability ...
CDF physicists have previously measured the rate of the matter-antimatter transitions for the
B0
s meson, which consists of the heavy bottom quark bound by the strong nuclear interaction to a strange antiquark. Now they have achieved the standard for a discovery in the field of particle physics, where the probability for a false observation must be proven to be less than about 5 in 10 million (5/10000000= 1/2000000). For CDF's result the probability is even smaller, at 8 in 100 million (8/100000000= 1/12500000).
Ronald Kotulak, writing for the Chicago Tribune, called the particle "bizarre" and stated that the meson "may open the door to a new era of physics" with its proven interactions with the "spooky realm of antimatter". [5]
On 14 May 2010, physicists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory reported that the oscillations decayed into matter 1% more often than into antimatter, which may help explain the abundance of matter over antimatter in the observed Universe. [6] However, more recent results at LHCb with larger data samples have suggested no significant deviation from the Standard Model. [7]
B mesons are an important probe for exploring quantum chromodynamics. [8] Various uncommon decay paths of the B mesons are sensitive to physics processes outside the standard model. Measuring these rare branching fractions sets limits on new particles. The LHCb experiment has observed and searched for several of these decays such as Bs → μ+ μ−. [9]
On 21 February 2017, the LHCb collaboration announced that the rare decay of a neutral B meson into two oppositely charged kaons had been observed to a statistical significance of 5σ. [10]
In particle physics, a hadron is a composite subatomic particle made of two or more quarks held together by the strong interaction. They are analogous to molecules, which are held together by the electric force. Most of the mass of ordinary matter comes from two hadrons: the proton and the neutron, while most of the mass of the protons and neutrons is in turn due to the binding energy of their constituent quarks, due to the strong force.
Omega baryons are a family of subatomic hadrons which are represented by the symbol
Ω
and are either charge neutral or have a +2, +1 or −1 elementary charge. Additionally, they contain no up or down quarks. Omega baryons containing top quarks are also not expected to be observed. This is because the Standard Model predicts the mean lifetime of top quarks to be roughly 5×10−25 s, which is about a twentieth of the timescale necessary for the strong interactions required for Hadronization, the process by which hadrons form from quarks and gluons.
The top quark, sometimes also referred to as the truth quark, is the most massive of all observed elementary particles. It derives its mass from its coupling to the Higgs field. This coupling yt is very close to unity; in the Standard Model of particle physics, it is the largest (strongest) coupling at the scale of the weak interactions and above. The top quark was discovered in 1995 by the CDF and DØ experiments at Fermilab.
A pentaquark is a human-made subatomic particle, consisting of four quarks and one antiquark bound together; they are not known to occur naturally, or exist outside of experiments specifically carried out to create them.
In particle physics, the baryon number is a strictly conserved additive quantum number of a system. It is defined as where is the number of quarks, and is the number of antiquarks. Baryons have a baryon number of +1, mesons have a baryon number of 0, and antibaryons have a baryon number of −1. Exotic hadrons like pentaquarks and tetraquarks are also classified as baryons and mesons depending on their baryon number.
In physical cosmology, baryogenesis is the physical process that is hypothesized to have taken place during the early universe to produce baryonic asymmetry, i.e. the imbalance of matter (baryons) and antimatter (antibaryons) in the observed universe.
In particle physics, a tetraquark is an exotic meson composed of four valence quarks. A tetraquark state has long been suspected to be allowed by quantum chromodynamics, the modern theory of strong interactions. A tetraquark state is an example of an exotic hadron which lies outside the conventional quark model classification. A number of different types of tetraquark have been observed.
The LHCb experiment is a particle physics detector experiment collecting data at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. LHCb is a specialized b-physics experiment, designed primarily to measure the parameters of CP violation in the interactions of b-hadrons. Such studies can help to explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the Universe. The detector is also able to perform measurements of production cross sections, exotic hadron spectroscopy, charm physics and electroweak physics in the forward region. The LHCb collaborators, who built, operate and analyse data from the experiment, are composed of approximately 1650 people from 98 scientific institutes, representing 22 countries. Vincenzo Vagnoni succeeded on July 1, 2023 as spokesperson for the collaboration from Chris Parkes. The experiment is located at point 8 on the LHC tunnel close to Ferney-Voltaire, France just over the border from Geneva. The (small) MoEDAL experiment shares the same cavern.
In particle physics, quarkonium is a flavorless meson whose constituents are a heavy quark and its own antiquark, making it both a neutral particle and its own antiparticle. The name "quarkonium" is analogous to positronium, the bound state of electron and anti-electron. The particles are short-lived due to matter-antimatter annihilation.
Exotic hadrons are subatomic particles composed of quarks and gluons, but which – unlike "well-known" hadrons such as protons, neutrons and mesons – consist of more than three valence quarks. By contrast, "ordinary" hadrons contain just two or three quarks. Hadrons with explicit valence gluon content would also be considered exotic. In theory, there is no limit on the number of quarks in a hadron, as long as the hadron's color charge is white, or color-neutral.
b-tagging is a method of jet flavor tagging used in modern particle physics experiments. It is the identification of jets originating from bottom quarks.
The DØ experiment was a worldwide collaboration of scientists conducting research on the fundamental nature of matter. DØ was one of two major experiments located at the Tevatron Collider at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois. The Tevatron was the world's highest-energy accelerator from 1983 until 2009, when its energy was surpassed by the Large Hadron Collider. The DØ experiment stopped taking data in 2011, when the Tevatron shut down, but data analysis is still ongoing. The DØ detector is preserved in Fermilab's DØ Assembly Building as part of a historical exhibit for public tours.
The Xi baryons or cascade particles are a family of subatomic hadron particles which have the symbol Ξ and may have an electric charge of +2 e, +1 e, 0, or −1 e, where e is the elementary charge.
Neutral B meson oscillations are one of the manifestations of the neutral particle oscillation, a fundamental prediction of the Standard Model of particle physics. It is the phenomenon of B mesons changing between their matter and antimatter forms before their decay. The
B
s meson can exist as either a bound state of a strange antiquark and a bottom quark, or a strange quark and bottom antiquark. The oscillations in the neutral B sector are analogous to the phenomena that produce long and short-lived neutral kaons.
The
B
s meson is a meson composed of a bottom antiquark and a strange quark. Its antiparticle is the
B
s meson, composed of a bottom quark and a strange antiquark.
The X(3872) is an exotic meson candidate with a mass of 3871.68 MeV/c2 which does not fit into the quark model. It was first discovered in 2003 by the Belle experiment in Japan and later confirmed by several other experimental collaborations. Several theories have been proposed for its nature, such as a mesonic molecule or a diquark-antidiquark pair (tetraquark).
The D mesons are the lightest particle containing charm quarks. They are often studied to gain knowledge on the weak interaction. The strange D mesons (Ds) were called "F mesons" prior to 1986.
The Y(4140) particle is an electrically neutral exotic hadron candidate that is about 4.4 times heavier than the proton. It was observed at Fermilab and announced on 17 March 2009. This particle is extremely rare and was detected in only 20 of billions of collisions.
In particle physics, W′ and Z′ bosons refer to hypothetical gauge bosons that arise from extensions of the electroweak symmetry of the Standard Model. They are named in analogy with the Standard Model W and Z bosons.