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CP Violation -- An Essential Mystery in Nature's Grand Design

I. Bigi
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Abstract

CP violation has so far been observed in one system only, namely in the decays of neutral kaons, and it can still be described by a single real quantity corresponding to a superweak scenario. In these lectures I describe why limitations on CP invariance are a particularly fundamental phenomenon and what experimental information is available. The KM ansatz constitutes the minimal implementation of CP violation: without requiring unknown degrees of freedom it can reproduce the known CP phenomenology. It unequivocally predicts large or even huge CP asymmetries of various kinds in the decays of beauty hadrons. New theoretical technologies will enable us in the foreseeable future to express at least some of these predictions in a quantitatively reliable fashion. There is tremendous potential for discovering New Physics in beauty transitions. Continuing efforts in strange decays and further dedicated searches for electric dipole moments and for CP asymmetries in charm decays are likewise essential for discovering crucial elements that still are missing in the puzzle that is Nature's Grand Design.

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I. Bigi. 1997-12-22. CP Violation -- An Essential Mystery in Nature's Grand Design. https://doi.org/10.1080/01422419808228861

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