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New Type of Particle May Have Been Found
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."
What do you think they make Peeps out of?!
That's no muon, it's a space station!
I'll show myself out.
Chewons
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?
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
I wish it was the god particle, rendering the whole point of building the LHC an epic fail. It would just be deliciously ironic.
When asked about the new particle during the first test, one of the instruments that was monitoring it malfunctioned. One of the resident scientists were quoted as saying:
"Overhead capacitors to one oh five percent. Uh, it's
probably not a problem, probably, but I'm showing a small discrepancy
in... well, no, it's well within acceptable bounds again. Sustaining
sequence."
Someone to replicate their results.
Oops!
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
The New Scientist article points to a paper at arxiv:
http://arxiv.org/abs/0810.5357
with the rather less sensational title:
Study of multi-muon events produced in p-pbar collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV
I'm amused to note that the author list stretches over three pages, which I gather is common for this sort of paper.
The question here is about repeatability, and given how long it's taken to have an anomaly like this surface, the only other accelerator that might be capable of confirming this find (ie, doing it again) is probably the LHC.
Anyone know what the probability of doing this again might be?
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Doctor " Congratulations professor!! you have a new bouncing baby particle"
Professor "look at those electrons, its hung like a horse"
Doctor "eer, sorry to disappoint your sir but that is just residual background noise"
John Conway talks about this over at Cosmic Variance: http://cosmicvariance.com/2008/11/02/cdf-ghost-muons/
Poor little guy gets a single centimeter in 20 picoseconds-time and poofs into nothingness but I'll give it an A for effort. I hope this does ultimately afford us a new awareness into how things work down the road; preferably in my lifetime. (Read: Something absolutely astounding).
... because a publication is not about excitement or popularity, but about solid results and conclusions.
For excitement and popularity one publishes in Nature or Scientific American.
The Tevatron is big money science. the LHC is bigger money science.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
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.
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...
I conjecture that it's the same old physics, and that we only understand it a bit better.
the deliciously ironic particle
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
> The hypothetical particle even seems to have the right mass to account for one theory of dark matter.
That may say more about the number of theories of dark matter than about this particle.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
The work is a ongoing one. You take measures all the time, it's not just one shot.
That's why I will believe the summary when a significant amount of particles fit for scientifically publication (say, 20) are detected.
Working against measurement mistakes and systematic errors should not be underestimated.
NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
I'm an engineer. I can use most of the equipment in the office except the soldering iron. I tried a few times and messed up a few things. Wasted some pads. Learned my lesson. Let the experts do their thing. I have mine...
subatomic particle.. its a Black Hoooo *FLASH*
"Particle May Have Been Found "
It is really good - and amazing - that they found this particle. I've lost sub-atomic particles before, and the things are just so incredibly small that it is unbelievably difficult to find them again. The resulting migraine from eye-strain can be terrible.
Better known as 318230.
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.
Down with categorical imperatives
Watch the experts do a few, try a couple of the larger connections, get a feel for the correct heat and how the solder flows and you'll be fine. there's a touch to it, it's not hard but you need a little practice, the old fashioned 40/60 lead tin solder is easier than the newer stuff.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
The real stuff has gotten pretty tough. I had the challenge once to rework a preproduction board to prove a design change. I was way out of my comfort zone.
Resistors these days are the size of a juvenile flea. If you drop one, let it go man... it's gone. ICs aren't much better. You have to use IPA and a lintfree cloth just to clean the soldering tweezers. It takes a 60x microscope and a steady hand. I was really regretting my caffeine habit. And the tiny static charges make everything sticky. The leadfree solder takes more heat so you have to be extra careful not so bake the components to death. And don't stab yourself with the tweezers. They look like pencil erasers in the scope but they'll penetrate your skin with no resistance, burning the whole way.
It worked. It wasn't pretty, but it worked. I am thrilled to have had the experience. I wish I knew a vendor for the surgical point soldering tweezers.
Respect to the asian ladies in the factory that do this all day for a pittance, with nothing more than a magnifying glass and grim determination.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
They do for the most part. But almost inevitably somebody makes 200,000 circuit boards, only to discover that something doesn't work and it to be reworked. Three resistors, a capacitor and an IO connector have to be changed. It's boring work in a toxic environment under appalling conditions. But it's got to be done if you want that new BluRay player under your tree.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
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..!
Digikey sells them. They're pretty cheap:
http://dkc3.digikey.com/PDF/T083/P2246.pdf
What do you mean by "finally"? Fermi has discovered tons of particles over its lifetime and probably will continue to be very useful in particle physics.
Here's a link to the top ten discoveries:
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
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/
He who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
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.
Considering that most comments are modded as "Funny", I wonder why serious articles like this get posted on Slashdot.
I can (or at least used to be able to) do weapons spec aka NASA spec soldering. That said, as an electronics tech back then, when a "real" (not prototype) board needed rework, I brought it over to one of the "rework" ladies (Betty or Tasha), along with the replacement part, and a "rework order", and let the pros do the work. Trust me, I was good with a soldering iron (Hence being able to pass the WS soldering course), but the pros "On the line" made me look like a chump. Heck, those 2 ladies made the rest of the people on the fabrication line look like chumps, which is why they were the people you tool re-work too
Now my eyesight is gone, my hands shake - what used to be easy now take one of those lighted magnifing rings and a way to brace my hands, and when it comes to SMT stuff, I really want one of the nice 10x binocular stands with all the trimmings like we had, and I didn't need back when I was 25 years younger (Getting old sucks)
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
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
The number of unexpected particles is ~10**5. This is not a statistical phantom, although the physical significance remains to be seen.
Hot air is your friend for soldering.
As a mere hobbyist, some of my designs use ICs with 0.4mm pitch pins (0.2 mm gap between the pads). I have made my own PCBs at home to mount these on. It takes care but it can be done and it doesn't require more than a magnifying glass. However, thanks to reasonably low cost PCB prototyping houses, I usually get the PCBs for that sort of thing made by one of those these days :-) I've even soldered 0.4mm pitch LQFP with a normal soldering iron with a pointy tip.
Hand soldering 0603 discrete components isn't hard and can be done with a normal soldering iron tip. Some hobbyists have used 0402 parts (and I bet some masochist has tried 0201), but I think 0603 for me is a good tradeoff between small size and my ability to handle them.
However, I've found solder paste and hot air really is the way to go. It's so much easier and neater. I have a little syringe of the stuff, it needs an incredibly small amount of it on each pad, and for ICs, just a bead of solder paste run along the pads. For hot air, I use an inexpensive hot air gun which on the low setting is the correct temperature for reflow. Surface tension is also your friend - slightly misaligned components will magically align themselves as the solder paste melts.
Others use electric skillets for reflow, or toaster ovens. Lots of hobbyists are doing fun things with tiny components now. Last night, I was soldering leadless packages on a home made PCB, using solder paste and hot air. Nearly all of my electronics projects now use fine pitch surface mount, and with hot air and paste I can mount resistors and capacitors etc. much faster than I can the equivalent through hole parts.
Hot air is also great for rework - use a nozzle to just heat the IC you want to get off, wait for it to all warm up, then remove it with tweezers.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
I live in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Chewans are mined near here. The province is named after them.