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Discussion » Statements » Rosie's Corner » Those fascinated by and with physics will be interested in this. The rest of you? I dunno. Are you?
RosieG

Those fascinated by and with physics will be interested in this. The rest of you? I dunno. Are you?

CERN saw hints of a new force of nature. Particles that behave in a different way than expected in the STANDARD MODEL of Physics. Which is what?

The STANDARD MODEL predicts that particles called "beauty quarks" should decay into either muons or electrons in equal measure. The new result shows that is not happening. Which may mean other unpreviously known forces may be at play.

Physics is a viable science. Ever-changing. How big a change is this? I have no idea. But I thought it was kinda fascinating.

Posted - March 23, 2021
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Responses


  • 13395
    Flukes happen surprisingly often..

    In order to confirm the result scientists will collect more data from the LHC and other experiments around the world such as Belle II in Japan in the hope of confirming what is happening.

    From The Guardian.

    Scientists like unexpected events happening because it gives them much more interesting work to do. This post was edited by Kittigate at March 23, 2021 12:44 PM MDT
      March 23, 2021 11:19 AM MDT
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  • 113301
    So it could be an anomaly or it could be a doorway to new thinking. Thank you for your reply Kg and Happy Tuesday to thee and thine! :)
      March 23, 2021 11:34 AM MDT
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  • 3719
    Oh yes -  they are well aware it might be an anomaly so will be doing a lot of very careful testing to see if it's repeatable enough to be accepted as a real effect.

    That's the wonder of the natural sciences - each time you answer a question others pop up!
      March 23, 2021 7:14 PM MDT
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  • 16630
    Given that muons are inherently unstable (and the neutrinos they emit almost impossible to detect), there's a school of thought that the data is baloney - too much stew from too small an oyster. It's absolutely possible that when these quarks decay, sone of the muons produced are themselves decaying into electrons and neutrinos prior to being detected. Ergo, "nothing to see here".
    The alternative is new elemental particles which at present are hypothetical. Either "Z primes" or "leptoquarks", neither of which has been demonstrated even to exist, so the properties of such particles are impossible to determine.
      March 23, 2021 7:34 PM MDT
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