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Scientists Have Detected a New Particle At the Large Hadron Collider At CERN (bbc.com)

New submitter ag144 writes: First time witnessed, the Large Hadron Collider finds predicted double-heavy particle. BBC reports: "Nearly all the matter that we see around us is made of neutrons and protons, which form the centers of atoms. These are made up of three smaller particles called quarks which can be either light or heavy. There are, however, six different types of quarks which combine in different ways to form other kinds of particle. Those that have been detected so far contain at most, one heavy quark. This is the first time that researchers have confirmed the existence of one with two heavy quarks. The research team will now measure the properties of the Xi-cc++ to establish how this new arrangement of quarks behaves and how the strong force holds the system together. They also expect to find more double heavy quark particles. Another unusual property of the particle is that it has two positive charges double that of the proton and it is four times heavier."

86 comments

  1. Two Positive Charges? by mentil · · Score: 2

    I wonder if there's a similar particle with two negative charges, that could be used instead of electrons for a more powerful replacement for electricity, or something. Any EEs that could speculate on the potential (no pun intended) effects of that?

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    1. Re:Two Positive Charges? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes there is, Anti-Xi-cc++, the anti-particle to Xi-cc++. No, it won't. If you want more powerful electrons just increase the voltage.

    2. Re: Two Positive Charges? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Particles like these are very explody, and are detected by analyzing the debris from their disintegration.
      There is a phenomenon where two electrons pair up to act as one. It's called superconductivity.

    3. Re:Two Positive Charges? by 19thNervousBreakdown · · Score: 1

      You're thinking way too small.

      If this is real, and stable (given that they didn't even bring up the question, and that the article is at the traditional Slashdot-level of understanding, I'm guessing it's not, because these articles are never anything excition), it'd absolutely transform our understanding of quantum mechanics. Things we think are impossible would become easy.

      But it's not, and it's not, and it won't, and they aren't, at least not in any way that will ever show up on Slashdot.

      Also... really? Electricity is already pretty easy to get like 90% efficient from hundreds of miles away. 2x electric would either be 95% or 180% efficient, depending on how credulous you are.

      --
      <xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
    4. Re:Two Positive Charges? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Since we haven't observed such a particle yet, then by definition it's rare and probably not a stable energy configuration. You'd have to somehow create these particles and hope they remain stable long enough to complete the circuit. The energy required to generate a large enough supply of them would also have to be extremely low (rather unlikely) otherwise it wouldn't be worthwhile.

    5. Re:Two Positive Charges? by ASDFnz · · Score: 2

      There will be. The anti-matter equivalent will correspond to that but that doesent actualy do what you want.

      However electricity is actual a function of electrons (a leptron called electron neutrino) and they carry a negative charge... SO, these new particles with two positive charges will attract twice as many elections and that is more along the lines as you are thinking.

      Unfortunately, that also means that it would take twice as much energy to force the electrons to move (i.e. electricity). In the end, the whole thing will be moot, the same amount of elections will end up travailing along your conductor producing the same amperage/was.

      Nice idea though, good out of the box thinking!

    6. Re:Two Positive Charges? by Michael+Woodhams · · Score: 1

      There are particles with double negative charge. They are too massive to conveniently carry charge around like an electron, are hard (very expensive) to create, and even more significantly have extremely short lives. Sorry, but this sort of particle physics doesn't have technology applications.

      --
      Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
    7. Re:Two Positive Charges? by GESUS · · Score: 1

      Well, the particle is a sibling to the Proton and Neutron and not fundamental (as far as we know) like the quarks and leptons (electrons are leptons).

      They do not go into detail but I guess this would be a Top Top Charm combo to get the ++ charge with 2 heavy and one light quark.
      Also, there is no statement on the lifetime of the particle. Probably that means that the particle exists for such a short time that it is useless for anything but fundamental science.

      No funny name for it yet? I will name it Skippy!

    8. Re:Two Positive Charges? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Sorry, but this sort of particle physics doesn't have technology applications.

      Yet.

    9. Re:Two Positive Charges? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      According to
      http://www.zeit.de/wissen/2017-07/cern-teilchen-baryon-lhc-teilchenbeschleuniger-genf-physik
      the particle, called Xi cc++ lasted for 0.0000000000005 seconds.

      Philipp

    10. Re:Two Positive Charges? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If this is real, and stable, [...] it'd absolutely transform our understanding of quantum mechanics.

      No it wouldn't. This particle was already theorized to be possible, but never observed until now.
      Since it's just a combination of two known elementary particles (quarks), it's not that big of a deal.
      It's still exciting, because we could learn something fundamentally new by studying this new combination (but that's not guaranteed).

    11. Re:Two Positive Charges? by fph+il+quozientatore · · Score: 3, Informative

      Charm Charm Up, actually. The "cc" in the name stands for two charms. IANAPP, but I think we are still very, very far from building particles with enough energy to have two tops -- we observed the first one just a few years ago.

      --
      My first program:

      Hell Segmentation fault

    12. Re:Two Positive Charges? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Any EEs that could speculate on the potential (no pun intended) effects of that?

      Electronics works with macroscopic amounts of charged particles.
      Trust me, you don't want your electronics to rely on a single particle reaching its destination.
      So double charges are irrelevant for electronics and if they weren't they would just make the function worse.

      Ask a chemist instead, they might have applications where it is desirable to require more energy before a charge transition can happen.

    13. Re:Two Positive Charges? by ivano · · Score: 1

      Since it's just a combination of two known elementary particles (quarks), it's not that big of a deal.

      Yeah, because having your decades old prediction being verified is just so much hype! /s

      We should be celebrating, instead we just want instant gratification and nothing else.

    14. Re:Two Positive Charges? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, because having your decades old prediction being verified is just so much hype! /s
      We should be celebrating, instead we just want instant gratification and nothing else.

      Lol, you mean "instant gratification" like ranting and completely ignoring what was said?
      OP said it would "absolutely transform our understanding of quantum mechanics", which it won't, for reasons I stated.

    15. Re:Two Positive Charges? by Lord+Crc · · Score: 4, Informative

      The top quark has a lifetime on the order of 10^-25 seconds, so short they don't hadronize. So doubt there's any chance we'll make tt particles.

    16. Re:Two Positive Charges? by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      All you'll need is a few million large hadron colliders in your living room to keep producing the unstable particles for your electronics. Unfortunately your house is going to explode before anything useful gets done.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
    17. Re:Two Positive Charges? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No, that won't work. A double negative makes a positive, naturally.

    18. Re:Two Positive Charges? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If this is real, and stable, [...] it'd absolutely transform our understanding of quantum mechanics.

      No it wouldn't. This particle was already theorized to be possible, but never observed until now.
      Since it's just a combination of two known elementary particles (quarks), it's not that big of a deal.
      It's still exciting, because we could learn something fundamentally new by studying this new combination (but that's not guaranteed).

      I put the word you failed to read in bold.

    19. Re:Two Positive Charges? by Aaden42 · · Score: 1

      So it lasted about 2x longer than most /. commenters in bed? Not bad...

    20. Re:Two Positive Charges? by PPH · · Score: 1

      A double negative makes a positive, naturally.

      Yeah, right.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    21. Re:Two Positive Charges? by KingMotley · · Score: 1

      With the same leakage rates, generating the same amount of loss/heat? Does it then react the same at all temperatures?

    22. Re:Two Positive Charges? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      exactly, this is not 'fundamentally changing our understanding of quantum mechanics', it is instead, 'verifying our current understanding to be pretty damn good'

      These particles are already hypothesized, now they have been seen. So, yippee, the math matches reality.

    23. Re:Two Positive Charges? by mschwanke97402 · · Score: 1

      Observing the Higgs Boson which had been predicted for decades was a big deal because without it and the Higgs field, matter has no mass, at least no explanation for why it does.

      This observation is just one more example of slamming things together to see what kind of oddball combinations we can get. Basic tinker-toy stuff. Interesting but not earth shattering. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of quark combinations to go!

    24. Re:Two Positive Charges? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't need the particle to be negative to replace electrons, as there are plenty of cases positive charges move to creature current (ions in plasma, ions in electrolytes, holes in semiconductors, positrons in electron-positron plasmas). The stability and how it behaves around other particles is much more critical, followed by its mass too. If a particle twice the charge and four times the mass of a proton could revolutionize electricity without any other qualities, it would be far easier to do with just a helium-4 nucleus.

    25. Re: Two Positive Charges? by GESUS · · Score: 1

      Okay, but if we do, can name it Skippy?

  2. Stupid title.. by ElectraFlarefire · · Score: 1

    All of I can think of is how redundant that title is.
    I'd suggest: 'New Particle Detected the Large Hadron Collider'
    Unless there is a second(third? How many of these things are there?) LHC I haven't heard of and maybe the Janitors or random people off the street are coming in at night to play?

    1. Re:Stupid title.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      'New Particle Detected the Large Hadron Collider'

      I wasn't aware that particles were actively looking for particle accelerators in the Geneva region.

    2. Re:Stupid title.. by ElectraFlarefire · · Score: 2

      Woops! Should have proof-read my own snark. :)

    3. Re:Stupid title.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      CERN has 6 particle accelerators, of which the LHC is the biggest.

    4. Re: Stupid title.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have 1 particle accelerator of which MHC is the biggest.

    5. Re:Stupid title.. by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      In Soviet Geneva, Particle detects Collider.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  3. A little bit more background by Michael+Woodhams · · Score: 5, Informative

    Quarks come in three "generations". The first, lightest generation has down (mass 4.8 MeV) and up (mass 2.4 MeV). The second generation has strange (95 MeV, a heavier version of down) and charm (1275 MeV, a heavier version of up.) The third generation has bottom (4180 MeV, heaver version of down and strange) and top (172440 MeV, heaver version of up and charm.)

    When they combine into particles, you either get paired quark+anti-quark (e.g. up+anti-down is a pi+ particle) or a triple of same type: quark+quark+quark or anti-quark+anti-quark+anti-quark. (E.g. a proton is up+up+down.)

    This article says the new particle has two charm quarks.

    This article says Xi baryons are a class of particles which have a single up or down plus two more massive quarks: either strange, charm or bottom, and Xi baryons have been known since 1952.

    From this I conclude that when they say "light" quarks they mean down, up and strange. (I was very frustrated that they didn't say what they meant by "light" quarks.)

    --
    Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
    1. Re:A little bit more background by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are quarks free inside atomic nuclei?

      I mean, do protons and neutrons keep their integrity and their quarks to themselves when bound inside a nucleus, or to the contrary, the nuclei are droplets of "quark soup" ?

      If the latter, can there exist stable nuclei (and atoms containing them) which contain some quarks from heavier generations?
      How about neutron stars? Are there also "quark stars"?

    2. Re:A little bit more background by tinkerton · · Score: 4, Informative

      Are quarks free inside atomic nuclei?

      Inside protons and neutrons you could say yes, they're free

      http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.g...

      But protons and neutrons wouldn't be described as free inside the nucleus. That's more like electrons in an atom.

    3. Re:A little bit more background by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      up+anti-down

      Where do physicists get the stuff they smoke when they describe the world!

    4. Re:A little bit more background by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They scrape it off the sides of the LHC before cleaning.

    5. Re:A little bit more background by ceoyoyo · · Score: 3, Informative

      IIRC quarks stay confined in regular nuclei. The "strong force" that holds together nuclei is actually a residual force from the real strong force holding the quarks together.

      To get a quark soup, called a quark-gluon plasma, you need an accelerator.

      Quark stars have been hypothesized as a state intermediate between neutron stars and black holes, with some oddly behaving neutron stars hypothesized to actually be quark stars.

    6. Re:A little bit more background by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought the available flavours were "up", "down", "sideways", "peppermint" and "sex appeal"?

    7. Re:A little bit more background by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They actually are "up", "down", "charm", "strange", "truth" and "beauty". :)

    8. Re:A little bit more background by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      So its not Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Alpha, Bravo?

    9. Re: A little bit more background by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, you can have a nucleus with a heavier baryon. If you put one with a strange quark in, it is called a hypernucleus and these have been observed. It still decays too quickly to be used for anything outside research, but does some interesting things to the nuclear shell structure.

      (Also, the existence of the strange quark affects QCD calculations that affect normal nuclei, as QFT allows for particle-antiparticle pairs to briefly pop into existence, and heavier quarks will have less effect due to less likely being created.)

    10. Re:A little bit more background by tigersha · · Score: 1

      Top and Bottom honey

      --
      The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
    11. Re:A little bit more background by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      I prefer Truth and Beauty, much as I prefer gigabytes as 2^30 bytes, and calling certain dinosaurs brontosauri.

      Besides, I named the cats Truth and Beauty.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  4. FOOLS! by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 5, Funny

    I know you guys are excited about all this cool stuff but it won't be long until they cause a triple heavy quark particle to emerge and it's game over. I know you guys like to have fun with the "universe" but you're effectively about to cause a memory rehash which the system can't handle. To be honest, I blame myself for this. I mean, when I was constructing this sim, I skimped on memory thinking that 640 zettaquads ought to be enough for everybody. ;)

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:FOOLS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      God, dammit.

    2. Re:FOOLS! by Ihlosi · · Score: 4, Funny
      I know you guys like to have fun with the "universe" but you're effectively about to cause a memory rehash which the system can't handle.

      Just ouf of curiosity ... how long ago was the last backup?

    3. Re:FOOLS! by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well, let's say it that way, the last partial restore was about 2000 years ago when the death of a guy was retconned for ... reasons.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:FOOLS! by tommeke100 · · Score: 1

      All hail the mighty root!

    5. Re:FOOLS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      " I skimped on memory thinking that 640 zettaquads ought to be enough for everybody."

      It's your fault for using Windows. This is why you use Linux!

    6. Re:FOOLS! by tigersha · · Score: 1

      So that guy in the desert who got another message 600 years or so later, he is just talking crap then?

      --
      The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
    7. Re:FOOLS! by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      I think he held the book upside down. My indicator was when he started reading on the right edge.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  5. Yup by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The simple things still confound the wise, eh? Maybe if they go far enough they'll find God. You still don't understand me. Priorities????

  6. Yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    Forgetting the standard model for a moment (and its ridiculous number of particles and magic forces), imagine that all particles are twisting hoops of dipoles (two massless charged particulates XY form all matter, they're spinning in chains, which close to form hoops). Each conventional particle is 1 wavelength of the hoop twist of this dipole chain, or less commonly two or three wavelengths. When you run this dipole model, you see these double-wave hoops form, but they don't last long, the hoop twists itself in half and splits in two.

    You also see charged particles, literally they captured a half dipole (an X+ or Y-) and it's dragged in circles round the inside of the hoop. And yes you see double charges (e.g. X+X+), but again not stable.

    It's not the conventional model, it's just a numeric model in a sim, and it requires you lose the concept of mass. (All forces are the dipole organisation force that you see in crystals, water etc. dipoles always organize to form a net attraction. The force between them depends on their twist frequencies subtended onto the other particle, and velocity reduces it, i.e. momentum has nothing to do with 'mass', the velocity reduces the attractive force, there is no mass, and particles have no mass, they're either arranged in a hoop with a large distance across the dipole and thus a large attractive dipole force, or in a cloud with a sum of a very low dipole forces. C is the limit function of the dipole reduction, photons are just clouds of these spinning dipoles)

    Oh, one side thing, C is not a global limit of velocity, it's a limit of velocity between two particles. You can arrange, say, 3 particles with initial velocities, so that the middle particle will accelerate past C relative to the first particle, since the force on it is the *sum* of limit functions. Which would mean black holes are not the end point of all matter, and universes, you can accelerate galaxies out to faster than C relative to us.

    OK, so it sounds like crazy talk.

    Please go on and tell me more about your thousands of particles and special forces that only exist at sub atomic scales....

    1. Re:Yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Take your meds Nathan.

    2. Re: Yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From one AC to another, you propose some interesting ideas. It would be great if you posted links do one could read more.

    3. Re: Yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are only 17 fundamental particles in the standard model, plus t antiparticle versions of some of them. Complaining of thousands is disingenuous because other particles like the one in this story are combinations of the same smaller set of particles. It would be like someone claiming protons and neutrons don't exist and that it is bullshit that there are over a hundred elements... when whatever you replace the neutron and proton with would still have to amount to the same number of variations we see in larger structures.

      Also, if you're saying there is only the electromagnetic force, then the speed limit of the speed of light is inherent in that. Special relativity pops right out of Maxwell's equations due to the connection that has to the Lorentz transformation. If you want to get rid of the "ridiculous number" of forces (four...) and act like everything is EM while having faster than light effects, you would need to alter it pretty fundamentally so it would be something rather different.

    4. Re:Yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  7. What does "First time witnessed" mean? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who the hell starts a sentence with those words? Illiterate American cretins... what's new.

  8. Stable? Nah. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > If this is real, and stable

    Looking at this table, I'd be ready to bet twice my farm on it being less than a [[mumble]]second for some value of [[mumble]] I'd have to look up.

  9. Re:A little bit more background - fries with that? by petes_PoV · · Score: 1

    From this I conclude that when they say "light" quarks they mean down, up and strange. (I was very frustrated that they didn't say what they meant by "light" quarks.)

    And when they describe a particle as "heavy", they really mean it has extra cheese.

    --
    politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
  10. It's dangerous. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They are polluting the matter with many poisoned debris from the colliders.

    Don't destroy more!

    1. Re:It's dangerous. by dyfet · · Score: 1

      Quark Lives Matter!?!

    2. Re:It's dangerous. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      what about quarks that have non-binary flavours?
      transflavour quarks?

  11. Nevermind by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    False alarm. Turns out someone jizzed on the console.

  12. Re: CERN is a giant fraud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ah, the "I couldn't hack grad school" crowd.

  13. Poor Titles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So the created a brand new particle, previously unknown to the universe? That's impressive.

    (For the impaired, this is sarcasm.)

    1. Re:Poor Titles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You must have even poorer eyesight. It says detected, not created or invented.

  14. double charge of proton and four times heavier by danskal · · Score: 1

    > Another unusual property of the particle is that it has two positive charges double that of the proton and it is four times heavier

    .... errrr congrats guys you just discovered Helium.

    1. Re:double charge of proton and four times heavier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lol! I was thinking the same thing. Sounds like they found 2 protons.

    2. Re:double charge of proton and four times heavier by Altrag · · Score: 2

      I'm suspect you're joking, but in case anyone takes you seriously.. this is quite different from Helium. This is a single heavy nucleon with a +2 charge, whereas Helium is 4 (or occasionally 3) individual light nucleons, two of which hold a +1 charge each (and the remaining 1-2 are neutral of course.)

  15. Re: CERN is a giant fraud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I used to work for a network equipment company that developed some of the stuff LHC uses for data storage and distribution, and working on that project directly contributed to R&D for the network equipment. I know of similar examples for RF and superconductor equipment.

    Of course it could have been cheaper to pay to develop this equipment directly. But you dramatically emphasized how there are NO benefits, as opposed to saying inefficient ones.

    Also CERN is a lot bigger than just the LHC. Work on basic accelerator physics and things like wakefield accelerators has direct applications for medical/industrial accelerators and isotope production.

  16. Real but not Stable by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 1

    If this is real, and stable

    Real, yes, stable absolutely not! Heavy quarks in bound states decay very rapidly. For example the other well known bound states containing two heavy "quarks" (actually a quark and anti-quark so the headline is technically correct, which of course is the best form of correct) have lifetimes of 7.2e-21s (J/Psi) and 1.2e-20s (upsilon) although a better comparable lifetime would be 2e-13s which is the Lambda_c which contains a single c quark and so, unlike the mesons, has to decay through weak interactions rather than strong interactions which takes longer. With two c-quarks the lifetime should be shorted that the lambda_c but probably not by a lot.

    Ultimately, while very worthwhile, this result is unexciting because it is just baryon spectroscopy. In terms perhaps more accessible to Slashdot it would be like Apple releasing the iPhone (n+1) or Samsung releasing a new Galaxy Note (which is perhaps a better analogy because the like the Note the particle disappears with a sudden release of energy after a short, but random, period ;-). What really makes headlines is the discovery of a new fundamental particle and so far we have had no luck there. This year's data is probably the last which will give a huge increase in reach for new physics. After this year the reach will still improve each year but in increasingly smaller steps since the fractional increase in luminosity becomes less and less as the total size of the dataset grows.

  17. Electron, NOT electron neutrino by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 1

    However electricity is actual a function of electrons (a leptron called electron neutrino) and they carry a negative charge

    No, the electron neutrino is neutral, just like every neutrino. It's the electron which carries the charge. The reason electrons carry charge is because they can move through a conductive material. Apart from being exceedingly unstable this particle will only ever carry electric charge in a plasma because in materials baryons have enormously higher masses and are subject to the strong nuclear force.

    The far higher mass and the strong nuclear charge means that they bind together to form nuclei which are so heavy that their bound states are very small (1e-14m) compared to the far lighter electrons which have bound states on the order of 1e-10m. This larger bound state for electrons means that in the right conditions it can overlap with the electron states of other atoms which allows the electrons to move through the material. The nuclear bound states never overlap unless you heat the material to an exceedingly high temperature so they have enough energy to get close enough to each other. This is why fusion reactors require such insanely high temperatures to work.

    1. Re:Electron, NOT electron neutrino by Altrag · · Score: 1

      The reason electrons carry charge is because they can move through a conductive material

      Uhh no. Electrons carry charge intrinsically. Moving through a conductive material is not necessary (though a moving charge -- whether from an electron or any other charged particle -- gives rise to magnetic forces. Which is not the same as the intrinsic magnetic moment that an electron also has due to its spin, though the two types of magnetism being named similarly is definitely not coincidence either.) Check out this Veritasium video, and the related minutephysics video he links to, for a bit of a graphical overview.

      this particle will only ever carry electric charge in a plasma

      I suppose that's technically true, but

      in materials baryons have enormously higher masses and are subject to the strong nuclear force

      this is not why, or at least not the immediate issue. We need to figure out a way to keep these kind of particles around long enough for the plasma to cool to a point where electron capture is possible before we can say conclusively that it doesn't happen. Doing some Googling, I don't even really see much discussion of the question so its likely not something people have bothered thinking about too much given that its currently not really a plausible thing to attempt.

      That said, I'm sure someone somewhere has attempted to do the math and I don't know what they may have concluded, so I can't necessarily say you're wrong about the impossibility of electron capture should we ever manage to keep an exotic baryon around long enough to find out.

    2. Re:Electron, NOT electron neutrino by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 1

      Uhh no. Electrons carry charge intrinsically. Moving through a conductive material is not necessary...

      Oh dear. Electricity is the motion of charge through a conductor. Hence the reason an electron carries the charge in a conductor is because (a) it has a charge and (b) it can move through materials. The video you linked is nothing more than a description of how electric and magnetic fields are linked via a Lorentz boost which has almost nothing to do with what we are talking about but note how it did say that the electrons moved to carry the current, no neutrinos in sight!

      in materials baryons have enormously higher masses and are subject to the strong nuclear force

      this is not why, or at least not the immediate issue. We need to figure out a way to keep these kind of particles around long enough...

      No actually we don't because nature handily provides us with another well known baryon, the proton. The reason that it is the electron, and not the proton, which is the charge carrier is because "in materials baryons have enormously higher masses and are subject to the strong nuclear force". This means that their bound state wavefunctions do not overlap with adjacent nuclei and so they cannot move like the electrons can. The reason you can't find much discussion about this on Google is because no physicist needs to think about it. We already know protons are not charge carriers and swapping out protons for a more exotic form of charged baryon in a material is still not going to make them carry the charge because with an even larger mass they will be even less mobile than the already non-mobile protons.

    3. Re:Electron, NOT electron neutrino by Altrag · · Score: 1

      OK so this is old but just.. wow..

      Electricity is the motion of charge through a conductor.

      I guess that's one way to define it. But that's not the same as the charge of the electron, which is intrinsic.

      it is the electron, and not the proton, which is the charge carrier

      They're both charge carriers. Equal and opposite charges, to be exact.

      in materials baryons have enormously higher masses and are subject to the strong nuclear force

      No, baryons have (relatively) the same mass regardless of whether they're in a material or not. The strong force energy is certainly responsible for generating much of that mass (via E=mc^2) but its also a very short-range force.

      The strong force holds quarks together within a nucleon, and it also holds the nucleons together within the nucleus of atoms.. but outside of that the strength of the strong force is nearly irrelevant -- the electromagnetic force takes over at that scale and binds atoms together into molecules and crystals and other materials.

      protons are not charge carriers

      As noted before: Yes they are.

      even less mobile than the already non-mobile protons

      Mobility isn't really the issue. I mean sure you won't be able to use these to construct a wire where the electrons stay still and the proton(-substitutes) are moving but.. so what? Answering the "does it bind" question doesn't require a whole wire, never mind a wire where the + charges generate the current rather than the - charges. It only requires one nucleus and one electron to bind together into an atom (or fail to bind together in any manner that we consider theoretically plausible and we give up) which in turn "only" requires keeping the exotic particle around long enough and cool it enough for it to undergo recombination with the electron (or maybe two electrons, given its +2 charge.)

    4. Re:Electron, NOT electron neutrino by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 1

      Sorry, I can now see that English isn't your first language but this and your apparent lack of understanding of how current flows through a conductor means that there is little point my continuing to explain since you are misinterpreting what I say and have some serious gaps in your understanding. For example, in English electricity refers to the flow of electric charge or, if 'static electricity', the build up of charge and "charge carrier" refers to the thing which carries the charge when there is a flow of electrical charge whereas you interpret this as 'charged' which is not the same (charge carriers have to be charged but they also have to move).

      I'd suggest looking up how electricity flows through wires in a suitable textbook - high school or first year university should be fine - and then remember that were enough of these particle produced and somehow stabilized they would behave like protons.

  18. Double heavy particle? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is it called the creimeron?

    1. Re:Double heavy particle? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here's a bitcoin. Where's my eggs?

  19. Much more complex by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 1

    Inside protons and neutrons you could say yes, they're free

    It's nowhere near as simple as that. Quarks are subject to asymptotic freedom which means that the higher the energy the less bound they become. However, the size scale you look at is directly related to the energy: the smaller the scale you look at a proton the higher the energy you need. So if you just look at a little below the size of the proton the quarks will still be relatively strongly bound but, as you ramp up the energy, the quarks will become more free...but something stranger also happens.

    As the energy ramps up the apparent consistency of the proton changes. The reason for this is that at smaller scales/higher energies there is enough energy that virtual quark pairs and gluons carry some of the energy and momentum of the proton - these are called sea quarks, as opposed to the valence quarks which we typically quote. The result is that by the time you get to LHC energies the quarks are generally only a small part of the proton and most of the proton is just gluons. So the typical model we use for LHC collisions is colliding two bags of gluons - no quarks involved unless the gluon-production channel for whatever you are looking for is heavily suppressed.

    1. Re:Much more complex by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Love your comments in this thread, but you're making me wish H.P. Lovecraft could have studied modern particle physics.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  20. Re:A little bit more background - fries with that? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    they're not 'heavy'. they're big boned. insensitive clod.

  21. Nearly all the matter.... by IWantMoreSpamPlease · · Score: 1

    I thought what bound the universe together was midicholrians?

    --
    So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
  22. Double Heavy Particles Not New by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ever see an American woman?

    Talk about double heavy!