Why did the matter in our Universe not annihilate itself with antimatter immediately after its creation? The discovery of CP violation may answer this fundamental question. From the basics to the front line of research, this timely account presents background information and theoretical tools necessary for understanding this phenomenon. Early chapters explore charge conjugation, parity, and time reversal symmetries before introducing the Kobayashi-Maskawa ansatz for CP violation and examining the theoretical understanding of CP violating K meson decays. Following chapters reveal how the discovery of B mesons provides a new laboratory in which to study CP violation and predict CP violation in B meson decays and rare K meson decays. Later chapters continue the search for a new fundamental theory and address the problem of baryogenesis in the big bang universe. The importance of close links with experiment is stressed throughout. Each chapter concludes with problems. Detailed references are included. This book is suitable for graduate students and researchers in particle physics, atomic and nuclear physics and the history and philosophy of science.

Product Description: Time and matter are the most fundamental concepts in physics and in any science-based description of the world around us. Quantum theory has, however, revealed many novel insights into these concepts in non-relativistic, relativistic and cosmological contexts...read more