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New Particle Found, the Bottom-Most Bottomonium

Posted by kdawson on from the how-low-can-you-go dept.

PhysicsDavid writes "Collaborators on the BaBar experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center have detected and measured, for the first time after a 30-year search, the lowest energy particle of the 'bottomonium' family, called the eta-sub-b. Bottomonium consists of a bottom quark and an anti-bottom quark bound together by the strong force. The discovery fills in a missing piece of quark physics that will help reveal the nature and behavior of the quarks and the strong force."

21 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Oh jeez, here come the bad jokes by jimbobborg · · Score: 4, Funny

    So this would be the bottom of the bottomonium barrel?

    1. Re:Oh jeez, here come the bad jokes by TornCityVenz · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well this should certainly make Sir Mixalot very happy..... wait...nevermind.

      --
      I Need someone to rebuild a Digitech Digital Delay pedal for me....for me...for me...for me.
    2. Re:Oh jeez, here come the bad jokes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      No, any attempt at telling a bad joke will result in you get a smacked bottomonium!

    3. Re:Oh jeez, here come the bad jokes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Scientific Symbol: ASS.

  2. Well... by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 4, Funny

    It seems this line of research has certainly bottomed out.

    --
    "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
  3. Lowest energy particle found in California! by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is it any surprise that the most laid back particle evar was discovered in California?

  4. bottom and anti-bottom? by spooje · · Score: 5, Funny

    The bottom and anti-bottom held together by the strong force?

    Sounds cheeky to me

    --
    Tea and kung-fu. Life is good. Rising Phoenix
    1. Re:bottom and anti-bottom? by Danny+Rathjens · · Score: 2, Funny

      Truth decays into beauty, while beauty soon becomes merely charm. Charm ends up as strangeness, and even that doesn't last, but up and down are forever.

  5. Bottomonium? by Mikkeles · · Score: 3, Funny

    '... the BaBar experiment at ...

    Shouldn't this be called Elephantonium?

    --
    Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
  6. That's pure, weapons grade ... by 0racle · · Score: 5, Funny

    bullonium.

    --
    "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
  7. Re:No force jokes? by everphilski · · Score: 4, Funny

    The strong force would be the sticky side of the duct tape, and the weak force would be the opposite side of the duct tape, which is still useful but not as strong.

  8. Re:I am looking for a physicist here... by k_187 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm not surprised that I can't tell the difference between a proper description of quantum mechanics and the ramblings of a drunken madman on the street

    That's what makes quantum mechanics so AWESOME

    --
    11 was a racehorse
    12 was 12
    1111 Race
    12112
  9. Re:Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    The should have called the particle a "panda". Then we could call it the "pandamonium" state!

  10. Re:I am looking for a physicist here... by clonan · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hey!!! Thats what Data needs to do...feed the anti-bottomonium particles through the quantum phase inverter than boost the power using a coherent tetryon beam!

    I am sensing a line from the next Star Trek movie...

  11. Re:Zoo? I want to go to the particle zoo! by Zarf · · Score: 4, Funny

    I love zoos. Can I pet the yellow part of a meson?

    If you do you'll get gluon yer hands.

    --
    [signature]
  12. Re:I am looking for a physicist here... by Dr+Caleb · · Score: 2, Funny

    Would we be surprised if these experiments were carried out at Black Meson?

    --
    "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
  13. Are particle physicists really perverted enough... by hyades1 · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...to discover the bottom-most bottom's "safe word"? Then, surely, we will be near to achieving a Theory of Everything.

    --
    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
  14. Re:No force jokes? by 4D6963 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Here it comes :

    Bottomonium consists of a bottom quark and an anti-bottom quark bound together by the strong force

    I feel a great disturbance in the strong Force, as if millions of bottom and anti-bottom quarks were bound together in the Upsilon(3S) state and suddenly decayed by emitting a gamma ray.

    --
    You just got troll'd!
  15. My AsS is taken by tepples · · Score: 4, Funny

    Scientific Symbol: ASS.

    AsS is taken: it is the symbol for realgar.

  16. Maybe Black Meson? by bckrispi · · Score: 2, Funny

    That was a joke. Ha-ha! Fat chance!

    --
    Xenon, where's my money? -Borno
  17. Re:Huh? by GrievousMistake · · Score: 2, Funny

    They wanted to, but then they'd have to suffer all the bad jokes about quantum physics being bamboozling.

    --
    In a fair world, refrigerators would make electricity.