The K- is an example of a meson with strangeness –1. The K- decays in the following way:

K-minus --> muon-minus + muon anti-neutrino

State, with a reason, what interaction is responsible for this decay?



Is it the weak force, same as baryons? I read that mesons were themselves bosons and exchange particles ie W+ or W-...

...the obvious answer is a CP violation .

means nothing to me, i'm in the first year of my A-level, could you put it in a way that i'd understand?

http://cerncourier.com/cws/article/cern/28092

The decay of a kaon (K+) into three pions (2 π+, 1 π−) is a process that involves both weak and strong interactions.

Weak interactions : The strange antiquark (s) of the kaon transmutes into an up antiquark (u) by the emission of a W+ boson; the W+ boson subsequently decays into a down antiquark (d) and an up quark (u).

Strong interactions : An up quark (u) emits a gluon (g) which decays into a down quark (d) and a down antiquark (d).

...CP violation is a violation of the postulated CP-symmetry: the combination of C-symmetry and P-symmetry . CP-symmetry states that the laws of physics should be the same if a particle were interchanged with its antiparticle , and then left and right were swapped .

It means Charge/Parity symmetry, and he's getting it from Wikipedia. Did you try looking this up online before you asked your question here?

Like I said, I'm in my first year of GCE course, I don't know what Parity is because it's not in my syllabus, and yes of course I did

Chances are, if it's not in your syllabus or textbook, then it's not the answer to the question. Widowmaker is in no way a particle physicist.

This post was edited by AEtheric on Oct 11 2012 04:35am

...never said I was ; simply trying to help a guy with his homework .

By giving him the wrong answer?