The B Meson

The B-meson contains a b-quark and the least massive variety has a mass about 5.6 times that of a proton. The table summarizes the properties of the B variety which contains the b-quark along with an up or down quark. The more exotic varieties B_s and B_c contain the b-quark along with a strange or charm quark respectively. The study of the B-meson has proven to be fruitful and has merited the operation of "B-factories" at the SLAC and KEK accelerator facilities. At those facilities the violation of CP symmetry in B-meson decay was confirmed in 2001. In B-meson decay the CP violation was found to be a larger effect than in the case of the Kaon decay although it was an effect on rare decays while the Kaon experiments shows a small effect on common decays. The branching ratio for the decay
B⁰ → K⁺ + π^- is only 1.82 x 10^-5, but this decay is 13% more common than its CP' 'mirror image' decay B⁰ → K^- + π⁺ (Griffiths).