First Particle Comprising Four Quarks Discovered

ananyo writes "Physicists have resurrected a particle that may have existed in the first hot moments after the Big Bang. Arcanely called Zc(3900), it is the first confirmed particle made of four quarks, the building blocks of much of the Universe's matter (abstract one, abstract two). Until now, observed particles made of quarks have contained only three quarks (such as protons and neutrons) or two quarks (such as the pions and kaons found in cosmic rays)."

Comments

Continues to confirm current theories

[jfdavis668]

It is amazing that these experiments continue to confirm current theories. I was hoping they would find some strange thing that didn't fit, so we could understand why current theories don't explain everything. Maybe next time.

Re:Continues to confirm current theories

[QilessQi]

Well said. But if the various numbers that make up the SM are axiomatic, it's interesting to consider what the universe might look like if some (or all) of those axioms were changed. Sort of like considering what Euclidean geometry would look like if the parallel postulate were not true, and consequently coming up with spherical and hyperbolic geometry.

After all, there's nothing to say that "other" Universes have to work the same way as ours -- even the mechanics of universe formation might be different.