Observation of Time-reversal Violation at BABAR

TL;DR

This paper reports the first direct observation of time-reversal violation in the B meson system, using entangled B meson pairs and analyzing their decay probabilities to demonstrate T-violation.

Contribution

It provides the first direct evidence of T violation in B mesons through a novel experimental approach involving entangled states and decay transition comparisons.

Findings

Non-zero T-violating parameters observed

First direct evidence of T violation in B mesons

Uses 468 million B anti-B pairs from Y(4S) decays

Abstract

The BABAR and Belle experiments have made detailed studies of time-dependent CP violation in the B meson sector. If CPT is conserved, CP violation should imply the presence of time-reversal violation. Production of entangled neutral B mesons in definite flavor states (B0 or anti-B0) decaying to J/psi K_L or c anti-c K_S final states permit comparisons between the probabilities of four pairs of T-conjugated transitions as a function of the time interval between the two B decays. Using 468 million B anti-B pairs produced in Y(4S) decays collected by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II B-factory at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, we find non-zero values for T-violating parameters. This represents the first direct observation of T violation in the B meson system via the exchange of initial and final states in transitions that can only be related by a T-symmetry transformation.