CERN's LHC (Large Hadron Collider) is a very powerful particle accelerator where particles move at extremely high speeds and collide with each other, releasing energy with matter and breaking into basic quarks and gluons. The CERN lab has reported the discovery of five new particles.
The discovery came under the collaborative LHCb (Large Haron Collider beauty experiment) project. The five particles discovery happened in a single analysis.
The specialized capabilities of LHCb led to the accurate detection of different particles ably guided by the datasets collected from the previous runs of the LHC.
The newly discovered particles were excited states of standard particle Omega-c-zero (Ωc0), which is a baryon or particle of three quarks.
The particle states have been named according to the standard convention — Ωc(3000)0, Ωc(3050)0, Ωc(3066)0, Ωc(3090)0, and Ωc(3119)0, with the numbers in brackets indicating a mass in megaelectronvolts (MeV) carried by each particle.
The CERN collaboration of scientists will find out the significance of these particles and their roles in the physical world and relevance in the quantum world. The findings have been published by the Cornell University Library.
New Particle Discovery To Offer Fresh Insights
The discovery of new subatomic particles may unveil the mystery behind atoms sticking together.
"This is a striking discovery that will shed light on how quarks bind together," said Greig Cowan of the University of Edinburgh, who also works on the LHCb.
"It may have implications not only to better understand protons and neutrons, but also more exotic multiquark states, such as pentaquarks and tetraquarks," Cowan added.
Physicists at CERN had been trying to understand how quarks interact with each other. The Omega-c particle is known to science since a quarter century, and quantum chromodynamics has hinted heavier versions waiting to be found.
"These particles have been hiding in plain sight for years, but it has taken the exquisite sensitivity of the LHCb to bring them to our attention," said Professor Tara Shears of Liverpool University.
Having codified the fundamental interaction that sustains the strong nuclear force known as quantum chromodynamics, the new data obtained by CERN will be crucial in supplementing them.
Difference Between Matter And Antimatter Probed
The LHCb experiment was basically probing the differences between matter and antimatter in "beauty quark," or "b quark" experiment, says the CERN website. In the process, it measured a very rare particle decay and gathered evidence of a new manifestation of matter-antimatter asymmetry.
As a baryon, the Omega-c-zero contains two "strange" and one "charm" quark.
After assigning quantum numbers, the new particles will be identified for their properties. For the scientists, they will also offer new understanding about the role of constituent quarks inside baryons and how they are creating multiquark states such as tetraquarks and pentaquarks.
LHC As Biggest Scientific Collaboration
The LHC is the biggest international scientific collaboration of 10,000 scientists and engineers from 85 countries working on fundamental properties of physics.
They can take credit for the discovery of a number of new particles, offering proof about asymmetry between matter and antimatter and also evidence that defuses claims of paranormal existence. Their research on elementary particle Higgs boson was also significant.
The upcoming plans of LHC include more particle discoveries and demystification of many old secrets in the world, including the origin of universe named as the Big Bang theory and existence of dark matter.
