Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva may have just broken particle physics – after detecting an abnormal signal inconsistent with the Standard Model, and hinting at a new force of nature, according to a study shared in a report. preprint server and confirmed on CERN Official website.
CERN simply went beyond the standard model
The Large Hadron Collider (LHCb) experiment at CERN has officially announced new findings that indicate a violation of the Standard Model in particle physics. This came from an analysis of 10 years of data on how transient (or temporarily existing) and unstable particles called B mesons decay into more conventional forms of matter, such as electrons.
More specifically, the new findings suggest a possible violation of lepton flavor universality – announced at the Moriond conference on electroweak interactions of unified theories, alongside an online CERN seminar by the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
The Standard Model underpins our scientific knowledge of the subatomic world and states that particles tend to disintegrate at exactly the same rate into products such as electrons as they do into heavier particles that closely resemble an electron – called muons.
However, new findings from CERN indicate that something strange is going on. Rather than decay according to the standard model and produce muons and electrons at the same rate, B mesons tend to produce electron, as if this were the preferred result.
Intriguing hint is too early to call
“We would expect these particles to decay to the same extent as each other in the final state containing electrons and the final state containing muons,” said experimental particle physicist Chris Parkes of the University of Manchester in a report by The Guardian“What we have is an intriguing hint that these two processes may not be happening at the same pace, but it’s inconclusive.”
In quantum physics, the new finding has a significance of 3.1 sigma, which means that the odds of accuracy are about one in 1,000. For those less familiar with quantum physics, this may sound promising, but in general, particle physicists are wary of jumping the gun until a new finding hits five sigma, while the odds of the results being a fluke are only one-to-one. few million.
“It’s an intriguing hint, but we’ve seen sigmas come and go before,” said Parkes. “It’s surprisingly common.”
In particle physics, the Standard Model describes how particles and forces control the subatomic universe. The theory has been built up piecemeal over the past half century and helps scientists describe how elementary particles called quarks construct neutrons and protons in atomic nuclei. It also explains how the two components of nuclei combined with electrons make up all conventional matter.
New shade on the standard model
Particle physics includes three of the four fundamental forces in nature: the weak force responsible for nuclear reactions in the sun, and electromagnetism; a strong force that connects atomic nuclei.
Unfortunately, the standard model does not explain everything. There is still a fourth force in the universe, one probably more famous: gravity, which – while incredibly powerful on the colossal scale of black holes – is not responsible for about 95% of universe physicists’ suspicions that it is otherwise exists.
It was and remains that most of the universe is made of dark energy, a cosmic force responsible for the expansion of the universe throughout its lifetime, as well as dark matter – an elusive substance that forms the cosmic web of matter. holds each other – like an invisible skeleton.
However, this recent possible finding has to do with particle physics. And “[i]If, with additional analysis of additional processes, it turned out that we could confirm this, it would be extremely exciting, ” said Parkes. This would cast a new shadow on the Standard Model and create the need for something extra in the fundamental theory of particle physics, he added.
Corrections also bring us closer to a uniform physics theory
And Parkes thinks this latest research, combined with other similar results from experimenting with B mesons, creates a more compelling possibility.
“I would say there is tentative excitement,” said Parkes. “We are intrigued because this result is not only quite significant, it also fits the pattern of some previous results from LHCb and other experiments worldwide.”
“There could be a new quantum force that causes B mesons to break up into muons at the wrong rate,” said Ben Allanach, professor of Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University. “It sticks them together and keeps them from decaying into muons at the speed we would expect.”
“This force could help explain the peculiar pattern of the masses of different matter particles,” added Allanach. While this has yet to be confirmed, particle physics is evolving and with it – the form of a fundamental unifying theory of physics.
This was a groundbreaking story and was regularly updated as new information became available.