PARTICLE PHYSICS:
Surprising Asymmetry Seen in Kaon Decays
James Glanz
CHICAGO--Once again, nature is teasing particle physicists. The Standard Model of subatomic particles, a body of theory that has survived several close shaves over the past few years, suggests that a lopsidedness in the laws of physics called direct CP violation should be small. Now data from millions of particle decays in the Tevatron particle accelerator at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near here point to a much larger asymmetry. Either the Standard Model is showing a crack--something theorists have long hoped for--or they have been applying the model incorrectly.