The Large Hadron Collider has identified a new particle, marking the 80th discovery by this particle accelerator, as announced by Europe’s CERN physics laboratory on Tuesday.
This newly discovered particle is called “Xi-cc-plus”.
Scientists are optimistic that this particle, which is akin to a proton but four times heavier, will provide further insights into the peculiarities of quantum mechanics.
The matter surrounding us, including the protons and neutrons forming atomic nuclei, consists of baryons.
Baryons are common particles made up of three quarks, the fundamental components of matter.
Quarks exist in six “flavours”: up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom, each possessing distinct mass, electric charge, and quantum characteristics.
In theory, numerous baryons can exist by combining these flavors, though most are exceedingly difficult to detect.
To uncover them, the Large Hadron Collider accelerates particles in an underground ring at incredible speeds until they collide.
This collision offers scientists a fleeting opportunity to measure the decay of more stable elements and infer the properties of the original particle.
The “Xi-cc-plus” consists of two “charm” quarks and one “down” quark.
In contrast, normal protons contain two “up” quarks and one “down” quark. The presence of two heavier “charm” quarks in the new particle results in a significantly greater mass.
Vincenzo Vagnoni, a spokesman for the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment, noted that this marks “only the second time a baryon with two heavy quarks has been observed”.
It is also “the first new particle identified after the upgrades to the LHCb detector that were completed in 2023,” he stated in a statement.
“The result will help theorists test models of quantum chromodynamics, the theory of the strong force that binds quarks into not only conventional baryons and mesons but also more exotic hadrons such as tetraquarks and pentaquarks.”
In 2017, the LHCb experiment reported the discovery of a similar particle, composed of two “charmed” quarks and one “up” quark.
The newly identified particle has a lifetime six times shorter than the earlier one, making it considerably more challenging to detect, according to CERN’s report.
The Large Hadron Collider, known for confirming the existence of the Higgs boson or “God particle” in 2012, is a 27-kilometer (17-mile) long proton-smashing ring located about 100 meters beneath France and Switzerland.
Related: Scientists Simulated The Big Bang’s Aftermath, And Found The Universe Was Like Soup
CERN’s latest achievement comes as it plans to construct an even larger particle collider, the Future Circular Collider, to further explore the universe’s mysteries.
© Agence France-Presse
