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In ordinary perturbative Standard Model reactions all three interactions conserve electric charge, four-momentum, total angular momentum, baryon number, and total lepton number. The last two are accidental conservation laws of these perturbative processes, not exact nonperturbative statements: electroweak sphalerons violate $B+L$ while preserving baryon-minus-lepton number. Total color charge is respected throughout.

The strong interaction and electromagnetic interaction also conserve each net quark flavor number, including strangeness, charm and bottom flavour. The weak charged current can change them through the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix. Isospin is an approximate strong interaction symmetry in the small light-quark mass difference limit; the different electric charges of $u$ and $d$ break it in the electromagnetic interaction. Approximate flavor symmetry is distinct from exact net-flavour-number conservation by those interactions.

Parity conservation and charge conjugation symmetry hold for the electromagnetic interaction and, assuming a negligible strong CP parameter, the strong interaction. The weak interaction violates both, and also violates CP symmetry in suitable processes. CPT symmetry holds under the usual local Lorentz invariant quantum field theory assumptions. Individual lepton family numbers are conserved in the conventional massless-neutrino approximation but not in neutrino oscillations; an assertion of exact family conservation in all observed reactions would therefore be false.

Source: www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/oxford_physics_past_papers_2/response/2340696/attach/10/Physics%20Papers%202021.pdf?cookie_passthrough=1

Source bundle pages 134–138. The paper cover establishes 2022; the attachment filename uses 2021. All times in the kaon calculations are proper times, unless a laboratory conversion is explicitly made. The CP symmetry approximation is used where the paper identifies the physical short- and long-lived states with kaon CP eigenstates.

A kaon is a pseudoscalar meson, with intrinsic parity $-1$. At rest, $P|\pm ⟩=-|\pm ⟩$. Combining this with the specified CP eigenvalues givesEquivalently, in the exchange-positive CP convention for neutral kaon mixing fixed by the question, $C|K^0⟩=-|{\bar{K}}^0⟩$ and $C|{\bar{K}}^0⟩=-|K^0⟩$. This sign is a convention for the flavor states; the specified CP eigenvalues and physical predictions must be kept consistent with it.

For two spin-zero pions, conservation of total angular momentum fixes the relative orbital angular momentum to zero. The resulting ${\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}$ or ${\pi }^0{\pi }^0$ state has CP $+1$. The lowest partial waves of ${\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}{\pi }^0$ and $3{\pi }^0$ have CP $-1$. Thus the dominant nonleptonic assignments in the CP symmetry approximation areThe two-pion mode has substantially more available kinetic energy and larger Lorentz-invariant phase space; the three-pion mode has an additional final particle and lies closer to its decay threshold. This helps explain why the CP-odd state has the longer mean lifetime. The actual mean lifetimes also depend on the decay amplitudes and on semileptonic channels, so counting final particles alone is not a quantitative prediction.

The middle panel of the figure in part (a) shows $\bar{s}\to \bar{u}{W}^{+}$, $W^{+}\to u\bar{d}$, with the $d$ as a spectator quark. The outgoing $d\bar{u}$ and $u\bar{d}$ form ${\pi }^{-}$ and ${\pi }^{+}$. In the bottom panel, an additional gluon produces $d\bar{d}$, supplying the neutral pion component for ${\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}{\pi }^0$. The charge-conjugate diagrams supply the other component of each of the kaon CP eigenstates. The drawn gluon splitting represents nonperturbative hadronization, rather than a quantitatively reliable perturbative prediction at the kaon scale.

These multiplicities describe the dominant low-orbital angular momentum modes, not an absolute rule for every three-pion configuration. In ${\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}{\pi }^0$, odd orbital angular momentum values of the charged pair and of its motion relative to ${\pi }^0$ can couple to total zero and give CP $+1$, but are strongly suppressed near decay threshold. Physical $K_L\to 2\pi$ also occurs through CP violation.

For (i), CP symmetry relates the negative- and positive-pion radiative channels to excellent accuracy. The original positive-pion table therefore predictsThe comparison requires the same photon-energy and event-selection definition. The table attaches an unexplained footnote to this radiative channel; it does not specify those cuts in the supplied excerpt. An arbitrarily soft photon is not a separately infrared-finite exclusive observable, so the numerical value must retain the table's definition.

Part (ii) contains an apparent notation error in the original PDF as well as the TeX: it prints $e^{-}{\nu }_e{e}^{-}{e}^{+}$, rather than $e^{-}{\bar{\nu }}_e{e}^{-}{e}^{+}$. Taken literally, the charged leptons carry net electron-family lepton number $2-1=+1$, and the printed ${\nu }_e$ adds another $+1$. The initial pion has zero lepton number. This is a $\Delta L_e=2$ channel, not the charge conjugate of the listed positive-pion decay. In the ordinary lepton-number-conserving Standard Model approximation,Allowing lepton-number-violating masses for Majorana neutrinos would require additional physical assumptions and does not justify assigning the tabulated number to that channel.

For the likely intended charge-conjugate process, the prediction is insteadThis distinction follows from a lepton-number test of a decay channel; replacing the printed neutrino by an antineutrino must be stated explicitly.

In neutral meson mixing, the mass eigenstates and flavor eigenstates differ. A state prepared as $D^0=c\bar{u}$ develops a ${\bar{D}}^0=u\bar{c}$ component because the effective Hamiltonian operator has off-diagonal mass and decay width entries. In the CP symmetry limit implicit in the source, the propagating states are equal superpositions, with average mass $M=(M_1+M_2)/2$ and average decay width $\Gamma =({\Gamma }_1+{\Gamma }_2)/2$.

To retain the source's positive $i\sin$ convention for $g_{-}$, take $M_2-M_1=\Delta M$ and ${\Gamma }_2-{\Gamma }_1=\Delta \Gamma$, with $g_{\pm }=(e_1\pm e_2)/2$, where $e_j=\exp (-i{M}_{j}t-{\Gamma }_{j}t/2)$. Then $x=\Delta M/\Gamma$ and $y=\Delta \Gamma /(2\Gamma )$ reproduce the given functions. Reversing an eigenstate label changes signs in intermediate formulae; it must also change the phase conventions consistently.

For equal widths, the mixed probability is proportional to $e^{-\Gamma t}{\sin }^2(\Delta Mt/2)$. Thus the angular angular frequency is $|\Delta M|$ in natural units, or $|\Delta M|/\hslash$ with units restored; the period is $2\pi \hslash /|\Delta M|$. A nonzero difference of decay widths adds hyperbolic time dependence.

The ordinary neutral flavour-carrying mesons that mix are $K^0$, $D^0$, $B_d^0$ and $B_s^0$ with their antiparticles. A self-conjugate ${\pi }^0$ has no distinct antiparticle flavour to oscillate into. There are no long-lived top-flavoured mesons, since the top quark decays before hadronization.

The right-sign denominator has its own small mixing contribution. In the same CP symmetry convention its decay amplitude is ${\mathcal{A}}_{\mathrm{RS}}=g_{+}+r{e}^{-i\delta }{g}_{-}$. After cancelling $e^{-\tau }$, the exact numerator and denominator areDefine $u=y\cos \delta$ and $v=x\sin \delta$. Their Taylor expansions are $N=r^2+r(u-v)\tau +\{x^2+y^2+r^2(y^2-x^2)\}{\tau }^2/4+O({\tau }^3)$ and $D=1+r(u+v)\tau +\{y^2-x^2+r^2(x^2+y^2)\}{\tau }^2/4+O({\tau }^3)$. Dividing the series gives the strict second-order answerThe usually quoted approximation additionally drops terms suppressed by powers of $r$ in the right-sign denominator:For $r=0.1$ and $x=y=0.01$, this is $0.01+0.001\tau +0.00005{\tau }^2$ for $\delta =0$, and $0.01-0.001\tau +0.00005{\tau }^2$ for $\delta =\pi /2$. The first increases; the second initially decreases, reaches approximately $0.005$ at $\tau =10$, then rises. The strict series instead has $(C_1,C_2)=(0.00099,0.000049005)$ and $(-0.00101,0.000051005)$. At $\tau =20$ the exact ratios are approximately $0.04913$ and $0.009934$; the leading approximations give $0.05$ and $0.01$.

With no neutral meson mixing, $x=y=0$ and $g_{-}=0$, so $\boxed{R=r^2=0.01}$ at all decay times. The wrong-sign signal then remains through direct doubly Cabibbo suppressed decay.

For nondegenerate quark masses, changing the constant quantum phases of quark fields preserves their diagonal mass terms. Adopt the conventionSuch quantum field rephasings alter individual entries of the CKM matrix without altering physics. Physical CP symmetry in this mixing sector means that some allowed convention makes the CKM matrix real. Toshihide Maskawa emphasized the distinction between complex entries and an irremovable CP-violating phase.^[ref]

Here is a constructive two-generation argument. For a generic $2\times 2$ unitary matrix, use the three effective row/column phases to make $V_{11},V_{12},V_{22}$ real and positive. Column orthogonality then forces $V_{21}$ to be real and negative. Row normalization leaves just the real rotation specified by the Cabibbo angle. Zero entries are limiting cases and introduce no weak phase. Thus two-generation quark mixing cannot violate CP symmetry through this mechanism, even when its entries initially look complex.

For three quark generations, the Jarlskog invariant provides an obstruction to repeating that construction: all four phase factors cancel from its defining quartet. If its imaginary part is nonzero, no choice of quantum field rephasings can make every entry real. With nondegenerate quark masses, this proves physical CP violation in the mixing sector. This argument concerns the weak interaction; it does not dispose of the separate Strong CP problem.

A weak phase is a phase in a coupling or decay amplitude that reverses sign in the CP symmetry conjugate process. A physically relevant difference must survive allowed field rephasings; a complex coupling alone does not prove CP violation.