Figure 1: The new CP violation measured by DZero is in disagreement with the theoretical predictions of the standard model for particles and their interactions. Credit: Fermilab.
The D0 experiment at the Tevatron accelerator at Fermilab (Chicago), in which physicists from CEA/IRFU and CNRS/IN2P3 are involved, has measured a significant matter-antimatter _asymmetry_ in the behaviour of particles containing b quarks, known as B mesons (or beauty mesons) beyond the predictions of the standard model (the current theory of particle physics). This result has been submitted for publication in the Journal Physical Review D.
(1) DZero is an international collaboration involving about 500 physicists from 86 research centres in 19 countries. The DZero experiment is funded by the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the National Science Foundation, and several international resource agencies such as the CNRS (IN2P3) and the CEA. Fifty or so French physicists from IN2P3 and CEA laboratories have been working together on the DZero experiment for the past decade, and have co-signed this discovery. In France, the following laboratories participate in DZero: The nuclear and high-energy physics laboratory in Paris (CNRS/IN2P3 - Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Université Paris Diderot), the particle physics laboratory in Clermont-Ferrand (CNRS/IN2P3, - Université Blaise Pascal), the subatomic physics and cosmology laboratory in Grenoble (CNRS/IN2P3, Université Joseph Fourier, Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble), the institute of nuclear physics in Lyon (CNRS/IN2P3 - Université Claude Bernard-Lyon 1), the centre for particle physics in Marseille (CNRS/IN2P3 - Université de la Méditerranée), the linear accelerator laboratory in Orsay (CNRS/IN2P3 - Université Paris-Sud 11), the Hubert Curien multidisciplinary institute in Strasbourg (CNRS/IN2P3 - Université de Strasbourg) and the institute for research on the fundamental laws of the universe (IRFU) at CEA Saclay.
(2) Fermilab, short for 'Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory', is located near Chicago, and its main accelerator is the Tevatron.
(3) Also called 'bottom mesons' in physicists' jargon.
For further information
- List of laboratories and universities participating in DZero: http://www-d0.fnal.gov/ib/Institutions.html
- Fermilab press release: http://www.fnal.gov/pub/presspass/press_releases/CP-violation-20100518.html
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