, including two high-energy photons whose energy (depicted by red towers) is measured in the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter. The yellow lines are the measured tracks of other particles produced in the collision. The pale blue volume shows the CMS crystal calorimeter barrel.)
A typical candidate event at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), including two high-energy photons whose energy (depicted by red towers) is measured in the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter. The yellow lines are the measured tracks of other particles produced in the collision. The pale blue volume shows the CMS crystal calorimeter barrel.
Image: CERN/COMS
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Gravity's Engines
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A never-before-seen subatomic particle has popped into existence inside the world's largest atom smasher, bringing physicists a step closer to unraveling the mystery of how matter is put together in the universe.
After crashing particles together about 530 trillion times, scientists working on the CMS experiment at Switzerland's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) saw unmistakable evidence for a new type of "beauty baryon."
Baryons are particles made of three quarks (the building blocks of the protons and neutrons that populate the nuclei of atoms). Beauty baryons are baryons that contain at least one beauty quark (also known as a bottom quark). The new specimen is a particular type of excited beauty baryon called Xi(b)*, pronounced "csai–bee-star."
The discovery was announced Friday (April 27) in a paper released by the CMS collaboration (CMS stands for Compact Muon Solenoid, one of a handful of detectors built into the 17-mile, or 27-kilometer, underground loop of the LHC machine).
"It's very rewarding,"Vincenzo Chiochia, a University of Zurich physicist working on the CMS experiment, told LiveScience. "We work for projects that run for several years — from conception to data taking, it can take more than 10 years — so when you actually come up with a discovery, and you know this particle collider is among the few that can produce it, it's extremely exciting."
It's just the second new particle to be discovered at the atom smasher, which opened at the CERN physics laboratory in Geneva in 2008. [Wacky Physics: The Coolest Little Particles in Nature]
The Xi(b)* particle had been predicted by a physics theory called quantum chromodynamics, which predicts how quarks bind together to form heavy particles, but had never before been observed.
"It was expected to be more or less where it was found," Chiochia said. "Not all of those heavy states have been discovered, so you have to look for all those particles. It may well be that the theory is not complete. In this particular case it was expected, but we have to keep looking for things that are unexpected."
And the researchers hope that with a little more time on the LHC, even more of these unseen particles will be found.
Exotic bits of matter like Xi(b)* are very unstable, and only exist for fractions of a second. They burst into being out of the abundance of energy released when two protons slam into each other head on inside the collider. Almost immediately, though, they decay into other particles, and some of these things are what physicists see inside the detectors.
The CMS researchers analyzed the results of trillions of collisions to find the signatures of the descendants of Xi(b)*.
"The collisions produce an enormous amount of tracks," Chiochia said. "To join the dots and find exactly which particle comes from which decay is actually not easy. What makes me confident is that if we can find this complicated chain of reactions at the LHC, then we must be in a really good position to find [other] heavy particles."
In addition to the other missing particles predicted by quantum chromodynamics, the LHC researchers are eagerly chasing another elusive quarry — the Higgs boson. This rumored particle is thought to explain why all particles have mass. Many scientists at CMS and one of the LHC's other experiments, ATLAS, say the particle is in their sights, and they hope to be able to claim a discovery of the Higgs boson by the end of this year.
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20 Comments
Add Commentalthough im not against 'new' discoveries,.. yet another $$ string theory -- my opinion
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd I thought I was pedantic. Oops, I used a contraction at the beginning of a sentence.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA conjunction of course. Somebody call the police.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"A never-before-seen subatomic particle ..."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisStill not seen. Evidence produced that it mostlikely exists as predicted by theory.
"A never-before-seen subatomic particle ..."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisStill not seen. Evidence produced that it mostlikely exists as predicted by theory.
It's hard to describe the value of the discovery. The scientists are excited; the comment here, not so much.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe real deal seems to be that the observations and calculations, which led to the theory of quantum chromodynamics, just received some substantiation evidence. And that's progress in our understanding of how the universe works. It's a good day. Beauti.
No worries. Most folks understand that language is about communication, not trivial and arbitrary rules like grammar and spelling. If your point was understood, that's what's important.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPeople like lamorpa don't understand that languages change and evolve. They believe they should remain stagnant because if they don't they'll have to learn new rules. There's no need to call them out on it. It's enough to pity them and those that are forced to deal with them on a regular basis.
Besides, if you really wanted to be a pedantic twat, you could point out the glaringly obvious mistake lamorpa made in their post. But, that's just not my style.
Anyone who claims that language is not important has never published a research paper in a recognized journal. The correct use of language should also be expected in 'science' journalism.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhere did I say language wasn't important? I said grammar, syntax and spelling rules are trivial and arbitrary. Of course, the message should be clear in any written communication. Precisely following arbitrary rules is no guarantee of that. In fact, since language rules change, following one set of those rules all of your life will ensure it's you who are eventually not understandable.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTell me: what about the "mistake" that lamorpa insisted on pointing out changes the value and/or message of the article in question? In what way would lamorpa's pedantry help you understand it better?
As I understand, the beauty quark was not detected directly - it was the existence of a "decaying beauty" that was inferred by detections of lighter quarks and muons...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGetting back to the science, it must be exciting working at the LHC. I imagine It would be a little like being an old time explorer or prospector. Though the science is mostly beyond my level of understanding, the thrill of discovery I do understand. Though my discoveries were mostly finding a splash of Azurite on an Iron Gossan capped hill. I wish them well.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGood, two, although relatively minor, particles discovered by the LHC at $ 10 B. Great return so far. I very much doubt it will find the Higgs. Also, this article doesn't say what energy the Beauty Particle was found. Was it in the higher TEV range for which the LHC was created? Anyway, I'm sure the superior detectors in the LHC played a great role. I doubt the TEV energy range was significant in this find.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen two large particles slam into each other the break down into the smallest elementary particle that exists naturally in space. It is an interactive state that follows axiomatic rules of self similarity and scale in-variance. Hence its mass can be calculated and need not be measure. Such a state is called neutrino in physics and is the smallest particulate state flooding the Universe.
The debris of all particle decays are these neutrinos. The logic is that space has components that cannot be detected but these interact at the frequency of EMW at a meter wavelength always and its a resonant state between hadrons and leptons as Physics looks at it . Neutrinos are the debris from this reaction and has a mass of 9.5 E minus 35 kgs. And also the frequency at which it always oscillates is at 2.96575x10^8 cps at a meter wavelength and is smaller than that of light by 1.010845.
But actually 7 neutrinos create a photon (quantum) when accelerated. As physics depends on the photon or quantum it can never directly measure it. But its presence can be seen in the SQUID. You dont have to dig miles of tunnel to detect it. All this is from an absolutely perfect axiomatic theory. See it on the web http://sankhyakarika.webstarts.com/?r=20111129083612. write to me gsvasktg@gmail.com for any question in physics and cosmology and I promise you you will get an absolutely correct and firm answer. The theory is powerful and predicts very important findings that Physics and Cosmology would when it starts to operate on axiomatic principles instead of empirical or experimental findings.
I'm just a pedestrian, but I that collided hadrons decayed into a whole zoo of mostly unstable particles, not just neutrinos. Also, I think that the experiments reported here the beauty particles decay products are two opposingly charged muon particles, not (muon) neutrinos.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSignificantly, as I understand, these results reduce the probability that particles not predicted by the standard model of particle physics may exist. It's unclear if this includes dark matter, for example.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCERN's "The Bulletin" issue no. 10-11/2012 states:
"An example is the decay of the so-called B(0) (sub s) meson – a particle made of a bottom anti-quark bound to a strange quark – into two muons. Theorists have calculated that, in the Standard Model, this type of decay should occur about 3 times in every billion... total decays of the particle. However, if new particles predicted by theories such as supersymmetry exist, the decay could occur much more often. LHCb has shown that the frequency with which a B(sub s) particle decays into a pair of oppositely charged muons is not larger than 4.5 times out of one billion decays, thus very close to the value predicted by the Standard Model. As a consequence, the measurement constrains more severely the existence of new particles outside the Standard Model, at least in the ways predicted so far by theorists."
Please see:
"New physics further constrained by LHCb results", (3-5-12), CERN "The Bulletin",
https://cdsweb.cern.ch/journal/CERNBulletin/2012/10/News%20Articles/1429165
Also:
"LHCb experiment squeezes the space for expected new physics", (3-5-12), CERN press release,
http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2012/PR04.12E.html
"Large Hadron Collider beauty experiment",
http://lhcb-public.web.cern.ch/lhcb-public/Welcome.html
Will Physicists accept that there is an theory based on axioms that has answers that Science needs very urgently. Because the longer this type of ambivalence goes on, the world is going to be poorer by trillions of dollars needlessly. The solutions that Physicists seek through such roundabout experiments can be found by scientific deductive mathematical principle of self similarity and scale in-variance that occurs in all time oriented phenomena. Like why a mouse or an elephant goes through life processes in real time in a similar style despite the size difference. The theory on the website http://sankhyakarika.webstarts.com/?r=20111129083612
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisis self similar, scale in-variant and is entirely based on axioms. Hence every dynamic real time process can be identified accurately and defined realistically in it. Physicists will not accept but the Neutron, Proton and Electron are derived from the number 2 and equals all the three values exactly as found through experimentation. All the anomalies in Physics are eliminated through logical derivation. It means Science can progress by leaps and bounds quickly and accurately and above all avoid the huge waste of money and time. That savings can help not only science but also the people in want of essentials like food, clothes and shelters all over the world. Readers please think about this opportunity and request Physicists to be flexible and seek an effective for the better. The website has complete information and contact gsvasktg@gmail.com for any doubts or details.
The predictive power of mathematics is breathtaking but nothing beats physical verification.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs Xi_b^* is the second peice of SAP Sub Atomic Particle, to be expanded from CERN,S Hadron Collider, they must be waiting in anticipation, for the Mayan Calender, to expire, and wait for a more Holistic Theory of Energy and Matter, in Five Dimensions, POLSUN PHENOMENA. 2012 POLSUN PHENOMENA, = HIGSON BOSUN.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTough audience. It sounds like they found smoke and had a fair ideal of what caused the fire. I don't think you get Polaroids at that size at least in living color.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf it meets the criteria, was found in the expected area, appeared to have the same spatial and energy effects then I would say quack.
I wish these heavy particles worthy of getting the properties of them studied did not decay so quickly.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this