The Phenomenon
Neutral particles such as the kaon, neutron, bottom quark mesons or neutrinos have internal quantum numbers called flavour. This means that the particle and antiparticle are different. If both particle and antiparticle can decay into the same final state, then it is possible for the decay and its time reversed process to contribute to oscillations—
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- A → F → B → F → A → ...
where A is the particle, B is the antiparticle, and F is the common set of particles into which both can decay. The example of the neutral kaon is pictured here.
Such a process is actually connected to the mass renormalization of the states A and B in quantum field theory. However, under certain circumstances it can be tackled through a simpler quantum mechanics model which neglects these intermediate multi-particle quantum states and concentrates only on the states A and B.
Read more about this topic: Neutral Particle Oscillation
Famous quotes containing the word phenomenon:
“The phenomenon of nature is more splendid than the daily events of nature, certainly, so then the twentieth century is splendid.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“When the ice is covered with snow, I do not suspect the wealth under my feet; that there is as good as a mine under me wherever I go. How many pickerel are poised on easy fin fathoms below the loaded wain! The revolution of the seasons must be a curious phenomenon to them. At length the sun and wind brush aside their curtain, and they see the heavens again.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)