Decay width 2026-10-05
In units with , the inverse lifetime of an unstable particle. A neutral meson mixing effective Hamiltonian operator incorporates decay through its anti-Hermitian part .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 305 3 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Let , . In the rest frame, the CPT theorem interchanges these states up to irrelevant phases. For the weak Hamiltonian operator , with , and its antiunitary CPT symmetry operator ,Its diagonal matrix elements are real by Hermitian conjugation, soIn the specified phase convention, the CP symmetry operator on this two-state subspace is . If the weak interaction preserves CP symmetry, , givingIndependently, Hermitian conjugation gives for this . Hence CP symmetry makes the off-diagonal element real in this convention; that conjugation relation alone does not imply CP symmetry.
For neutral meson mixing described by the decay-effective Hamiltonian operator , the effective matrix is generally not a Hermitian matrix. The CPT constraints on neutral-meson mixing still give equality of the complex diagonal entries, expressing equal masses and total decay widths, and CP symmetry gives equality of the off-diagonal entries in the specified convention. One must not additionally impose on this decay-effective matrix.