B−L Wiki resources & B−L information at HealthHaven.com

B−L:

Flavour in particle physics v • d • e
Flavour quantum numbers: Baryon number: B Lepton number: L Strangeness: S Charmness: C Bottomness: B' Topness: T Isospin: I or I_z Weak isospin: T or T_z Electric charge: Q Combinations: Hypercharge: Y Y = 2 (Q − I_z) Weak hypercharge: Y_W Y_W = 2 (Q − T_z) X + 2Y_W = 5 (B − L) Related topics: CPT symmetry CKM matrix CP symmetry Chirality

In high energy physics, B−L (pronounced "bee minus ell") is the baryon number minus the lepton number.

[edit] Details

This quantum number is the charge of a global/gauge U(1) symmetry in some GUT models, called U(1)_B−L. Unlike baryon number alone or lepton number alone, this hypothetical symmetry is not broken by chiral anomalies or gravitational anomalies, as long as this symmetry is global, which is why this symmetry is often invoked. If B−L exists as a symmetry, it has to be spontaneously broken to give the neutrinos a nonzero mass if we assume the seesaw mechanism.

The anomalies that break baryon number conservation and lepton number conservation individually cancel in such a way that B−L is always conserved. One example is proton decay where a proton (B=1, L=0) decays into a pion (B=0, L=0) and positron (B=0, L=−1).

Weak hypercharge $Y_W\,$ is related to B−L via:

$X + 2Y_W = 5(B - L) \,$

where X is the U(1) symmetry GUT-associated conserved quantum number.

[edit] See also

This particle physics-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%E2%88%92L"