Consider equal initial abundances of a heavy boson and its antiparticle. Two decay channels with different baryon numbers, for example and , have branching fractions and . The conjugate channels have branching fractions and . Their mean baryon numbers are and , so each particle-antiparticle pair produces , or per decaying particle. Unequal branching fractions require CP violation; equal total decay widths are consistent with CPT symmetry. Baryon number cannot be assigned so that both channels conserve it. An initial abundance decaying outside thermal equilibrium, after inverse production becomes ineffective, can therefore generate a nonzero baryon asymmetry. At the microscopic level a decay-rate difference caused by CP violation requires interference of decay amplitudes with both a relative weak phase and an absorptive phase; complex couplings alone do not guarantee it. Subsequent baryon-number washout must be ineffective for the produced asymmetry to survive.
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