Javier Fernández Menéndez
Full professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Oviedo and member of the FPAUO High Energy Physics research group
Is the study of good quality?
“Yes, of course, it is supported by the LHCb collaboration and in a highly statistically significant and extensively studied data sample (data from Run 1 and Run 2, spanning the years 2011, 2012, and 2015-2018). Not surprisingly, the data, as well as the code, will be made available to the general public as part of CERN's Open Data policy.”
Do these observations represent a milestone in particle physics?
“Yes, well, until now, these asymmetries predicted in the Standard Model had only been observed in samples of mesons (composed of two quarks) and not in baryons (composed of three quarks), the latter being those present in the conventional matter that makes up the universe, the human body... Every object on Earth is made of baryons (protons and neutrons).”
What implications might this discovery have (in this or other areas)?
“I think it represents another small step forward in the long road of science, in this particular case, as it was a long-sought and expected result, with very high precision. Understanding why we are made of matter and not antimatter (positive protons instead of negative antiprotons, for example) is one of the key elements in understanding our universe.”
What limitations does it have?
“Apart from the measurement uncertainty, which, although low because it is very precise (the combined systematic uncertainty is as low as 0.10%), can always be improved with more statistical or other analytical techniques, the result is reduced to a single type of baryon (type b) and its antiparticle, and in a given decay channel (proton, kaon, and two pions).”