B-sub-s meson
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The Bs meson is a Meson noted for its ability to switch between matter and antimatter 3 trillion times per second, or more specifically, with a 90% certainty level, 17.0 ps-1 < Δms < 21.0 ps-1 [1].
On September 25, 2006, Fermilab announced that they had claimed discovery of previously-only-theorized Bs meson.[2] According to Fermilab's press release:
This first major discovery of Run 2 continues the tradition of particle physics discoveries at Fermilab, where the bottom (1977) and top (1995) quarks were discovered. Surprisingly, the bizarre behavior of the Bs (pronounced "B sub s") mesons is actually predicted by the Standard Model of fundamental particles and forces. The discovery of this oscillatory behavior is thus another reinforcement of the Standard Model's durability. . . . CDF physicists have previously measured the rate of the matter-antimatter transitions for the Bs meson, which consists of the heavy bottom quark bound by the strong nuclear interaction to a strange antiquark. Now they have achieved the standard for a discovery in the field of particle physics, where the probability for a false observation must be proven to be less than about 1 in 2 000 000. For CDF's result the probability is even smaller, at 1 in 12 500 000.
Ronald Kotulak, writing for the Chicago Tribune, called the particle "bizarre" and stated that the meson "may open the door to a new era of physics" with its proven interactions with the "spooky realm of antimatter".[3]
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