Neutrinos, Muons and the Standard Model

scorp1us writes: "I can't believe I haven't seen this posted yet. Apparently experiments in particle physics aren't holding to theory. The result: a search for a new form of energy or matter. Read about it in the Post. No wonder witches weigh as much as a duck."

Comments

what kind of crack?

[rnd()]

Someone asked professor Peter Myers, "What kind of crack are you smoking?"

Peter Meyers, a professor of physics at Princeton University who was not part of the research team, said the finding is the "sort of crack" that "has been sought for many, many years."

Princeton Professors on crack?

[Motheius]

I always knew the professors over at Princeton were on Crack and now we have proof:

Peter Meyers, a professor of physics at Princeton University who was not part of the research team, said the finding is the "sort of crack" that "has been sought for many, many years."

big deal

[TeknoHog]

<include IAAP.h>

The article, in essence, doesn't say anything about anything. These kinds of things happen in particle physics every day and it takes more than that to change the established theory.

The established theory? To begin with, the Standard Model only involves massless neutrinos. There are already many 'established' discrepancies to the Standard Model: for instance that neutrinos have non-zero mass, and the Higgs mechanism by which masses are created.

So there's already 'something wrong with the theory'. And everybody knows that. The Standard Model is somewhat an old fart among many, partly contradictory theories in particle physics.

So, I don't have a cool concluding quip today, just the note that this isn't real news.