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New Type of Particle May Have Been Found

Posted by kdawson on from the outside-the-pipe dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The LHC is out of commission, but the Tevatron collider at Fermilab is still chugging along, and may have just discovered a new type of particle that would signal new physics. New Scientist reports that the Tevatron's CDF detector has found muons that seem to have been created outside of the beam pipe that confines the protons and anti-protons being smashed together. The standard model can't explain the muons, and some speculate that 'an unknown particle with a lifetime of about 20 picoseconds was produced in the collision, traveled about 1 centimeter, through the side of the beam pipe, and then decayed into muons.' The hypothetical particle even seems to have the right mass to account for one theory of dark matter."

11 of 281 comments (clear)

  1. One theory of dark matter eh? by Fluffeh · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The hypothetical particle even seems to have the right mass to account for one theory of dark matter."

    Not to ask the blatantly obvious, but if it's the right mass for one theory of dark matter, I can't help but wonder where they are all being produced. Given a life of 20 picoseconds, I can't imagine that there would be monstrous factories of these things all over the universe to account for the stupidly large amount of mass they are supposed to account for. How come we haven't found them before?

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    1. Re:One theory of dark matter eh? by zappepcs · · Score: 3, Interesting

      kipman, I did not ask for an explanation of global warming. I am curious as to what effects space radiation has on our solar system, and in turn, our planet. Feel free to assume that every conversation about the planet earth is or should be able man's contribution to the global warming effect. You may also feel free to consider that there is more to science than answering politically charge questions. More often than not scientists simply want to answer a question to know the answer... whatever their personal beliefs. I'm not confused at all. I'm not looking for a cause of global warming. I'm asking what effects various types of radiation have on our Sun and solar system... and in turn, on our planet.

      Until not long ago it was not thought that anything escaped a black hole, now we know different. Fortunately we've not been in the middle of the full force of some of that radiation in the past few hundred million years (that we know of). There are some fantastically energetic radiation sources in the Universe, and understanding how they might affect us is an important thing. Perhaps as important or more so than tracking any objects that might collide with the Earth.

      Now, we find new particles and the question is how do they interact with other matter in the Universe/Solar System. What effect will they have on our understanding of physics etc. Your dismissal of the thought is rather boorish. This might bring you close to being up to speed: http://www.jrmooneyham.com/ctctgam.html or at least give you a clue.

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  2. Re:coincidence? by harlows_monkeys · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Warning: the following is from memory, so details may be off. The gist of it is correct.

    There's a section in "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" where he goes to see the collider at the new school he's just arrived at. The collider at the school he came from is state of the art, so he's expecting something even better at the new school, because they have been producing many remarkable, cutting edge, results.

    The collider he finds is small, and far from state of the art, and almost held together by duct tape and chewing gum. He realizes that this is why it has produced such remarkable results--the scientists that work with it are very hands on, getting down and dirty with the experiments, coaxing every last bit out of them. The scientists using the shiny new state of the art collider are sitting back in their offices, just getting disembodied data that they haven't really connected with, and don't understand on a gut level like their colleagues using the "inferior" equipment do.

    Feynman knew then he was going to happy at the new school.

  3. Re:coincidence? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I work in electrical engineering, and unfortunately very few people play with scopes and irons anymore. "Hardware" engineering is mostly abstract concept juggling on computers these days.

    I'm the guy with the 45 year old tube scope with Nixie tube digital readout and the two soldering irons...

  4. New Physics by sexconker · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I conjecture that it's the same old physics, and that we only understand it a bit better.

  5. Re:coincidence? by domanova · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Interesting. I'd guess that the Tev and the SPS (which is now the LHC injector) are sort of the-same-money physics, in real terms, as the LHC. But I don't know. The SSC, which was going to reach higher energy than the LHC, got far too expensive, mostly because of gross mismanagement. Disclaimer: I've worked on all the mentioned machines, and the demise of SSC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_Super_Collider hurt a lot.

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  6. 1 cm in 20 pico secs..? not so fast..?! by v4vijayakumar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    an unknown particle with a lifetime of about 20 picoseconds was produced in the collision, traveled about 1 centimeter

    That is 16000 times faster than light..!

  7. Re:coincidence? by krlynch · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Digikey sells them. They're pretty cheap:

    http://dkc3.digikey.com/PDF/T083/P2246.pdf

  8. The X(3872) Particle by Rocketship+Underpant · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There are several mysterious particles that aren't easily identified by the Standard Model. One in particular is the X(3872) particle, which was discovered by Japanese scientists and confirmed by other laboratories. It might be a tetraquark particle or even a meson molecule, but scientists are just guessing for now.

    http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/breaking/2008/04/13/the-charming-case-of-x3872/

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  9. Re:coincidence? by arodland · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I just find it odd that with the introduction of a new collider this one has finally found something.

    Right, because the Tevatron hasn't found anything at all in the past 25 years. Ever hear of the top quark? Remember that article a year ago about the "Cascade B" particle? You may have seen it, it was on Slashdot.

  10. Re:1 Centimeter in 20 Picoseconds... by JohnFluxx · · Score: 3, Interesting

    1) 20 picoseconds is a half life (so it has a 50% chance of decaying every 20 picoseconds).

    2) Time slows down for a fast moving particle. This was one of the first pieces of evidence for special relativity:
    http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Relativ/muon.html