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James H. Christenson, James Watson Cronin, Val Logsdon Fitch and René Turlay reported the result in 1964. At Brookhaven's AGS, 30 GeV protons struck beryllium; collimators selected a neutral particle beam at 30 degrees. A downstream helium decay volume reduced interactions.^[ref]

The flight distance suppressed the short-lived kaon component. Each arm of a two-arm magnetic spectrometer had spark chambers before and after its magnet. Cherenkov detectors and scintillation counters triggered photographic recording in coincidence.^[ref]

The helium sample yielded $45\pm 9$ signal events; $(2.0\pm 0.4)\times 10^{-3}$ was the ratio to all charged decay channels.^[ref] That denominator must be retained when comparing this result with a total branching fraction.

The evidence was kinematic. Later regenerated-beam quantum interference established that the short- and long-lived states reached the same two-pion final state, excluding alternatives such as distinct pion-like particles.^[ref] The 1964 observation established evidence for CP violation; it did not determine every parameter of the CKM matrix. Inferring time-reversal symmetry violation from CP violation invokes CPT symmetry, rather than a direct comparison of time-reversed transitions in that experiment.

James Cronin coauthored the 1964 discovery of CP violation in neutral kaon decays. Magnetic analysis and spark chambers reconstructed two charged tracks from a long-lived neutral beam. The small two-pion component was incompatible with the simple CP-conserving assignment of that state. A rare decay channel thus tested a fundamental symmetry of the weak interaction.^[ref]

A physicist.^[ref]

An experimental particle physicist who coauthored the Christenson-Cronin-Fitch-Turlay kaon CP violation experiment. Its spark chambers and magnetic analysis reconstructed two charged decay tracks in a neutral kaon beam. The rare two-pion signal exposed a failure of CP symmetry, showing why identifying a small decay component can test a fundamental symmetry.^[ref]

Neutral kaon regeneration is the production of a short-lived component when a neutral kaon beam passes through matter. In the phase convention of kaon CP eigenstates, let the forward transmission amplitudes of $K^0$ and ${\bar{K}}^0$ be $t$ and $\bar{t}$. Expanding $t|K^0⟩+\bar{t}|{\bar{K}}^0⟩$ in the kaon CP eigenstates gives the displayed equation. Different forward scattering amplitudes, including absorption, can therefore generate a two-pion signal even with CP symmetry. Ordinary matter is not a CP-symmetric preparation.

Tungsten regeneration calibrated the signal; scanning its position sampled acceptance. Helium regeneration was insufficient, bag walls lay outside acceptance, vertex distributions excluded collimator regeneration, and hydrogen data cross-checked the effect.^[ref] These controls are central: the question is whether the long-lived component itself reaches two pions, rather than whether material has prepared a fresh short-lived component.

An experimental particle physicist who coauthored the 1964 discovery experiment for CP violation. A neutral kaon beam passed a two-arm magnetic spectrometer with spark chambers that reconstructed charged decay products. Evidence for two-pion decays of the long-lived component challenged conservation of the combined charge-conjugation and parity symmetry.^[ref]

The short-lived neutral kaon $K_S$ is one of the two propagating eigenstates of the effective neutral kaon mixing problem. It is a coherent combination $p|K^0⟩+q|{\overline{K}}^0⟩$, with coefficients depending on the phase convention and normalized so $|p{|}^2+|q{|}^2=1$.

In the limit of exact CP symmetry, it is approximately the CP-even combination and readily decays to two pions; the corresponding long-lived state has different allowed decay channels. Small CP violation makes the exact identification with a CP eigenstate imperfect. The observation of two-pion decays in the nominally long-lived beam was therefore evidence for CP violation, not a redefinition of the short-lived state.^[ref]

A two-track invariant mass and a direction test answer different questions. In units $c=1$, assign each track the pion mass $m_{\pi }$ and reconstruct its momentum before magnetic deflection. With $p_{\pm }=|{\mathbf{p}}_{\pm }|$ and opening angle $\alpha$,This follows by expanding the squared sum of the two four-momenta. The angle $\theta$ between the reconstructed parent momentum $\mathbf{P}={\mathbf{p}}_{+}+{\mathbf{p}}_{-}$ and the neutral particle beam direction $\hat{\mathbf{n}}$ satisfiesA fully reconstructed two-body decay channel gives the parent mass and $\theta \simeq 0$, within experimental resolution. A three-body decay channel with an unseen neutrino generally misses both constraints; an accidental correct invariant mass alone is insufficient. Notice that the track opening angle $\alpha$ need not be small even when the parent direction angle $\theta$ vanishes.

The 1964 analysis selected $490<M_{\pi \pi }<510$ MeV and remeasured events with $\cos \theta >0.9995$, comparing adjacent mass bands.^[ref]

For an original dimensionless example, take $m_{\pi }=1$, $\hat{\mathbf{n}}=(0,0,1)$ and ${\mathbf{p}}_{\pm }=(\pm \sqrt{3},0,3)$. Each energy is $\sqrt{13}$; the opening angle is $60$ degrees since $\cos \alpha =(9-3)/(9+3)=1/2$. Yet $\mathbf{P}=(0,0,6)$ points exactly along the beam, and $M_{\pi \pi }^2=4(13)-36=16$. Thus a parent of mass $4$ passes both ideal tests. These chosen numbers illustrate four-momentum conservation, not detector performance.

An experimental particle physicist who coauthored the 1964 observation of CP violation in neutral kaon decay. The experiment sought two-pion decays in the long-lived neutral beam, reconstructing their kinematics with magnetic spectrometers. The signal tested a symmetry of the weak interaction through a rare process rather than a bulk property of matter.^[ref]