CP Violation in B⁰_s Mesons

The B^0_s meson is a bound state of b and s type quarks. A CP violation parameter, \beta_s, of that system is the analogue of the parameter \beta measured precisely at the B factories in B^0 decays. The standard model predicts, robustly and precisely, a value of \beta_s which is very close to zero. The CDF and D0 experiments now have about 2000 fully reconstructed and flavor-tagged B^0_s --> J/psi \phi decays each, with which they set new experimental bounds on \beta_s. A combination of results from CDF and D0 is consistent with the standard model at only the 2.2 sigma level. If the discrepancy is not a statistical fluctuation, it would indicate new sources of CP violation.