Scientists from the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva may have just broken the particle physics – after detecting a deviating signal that is not in line with the standard model, and alluding to a new force of nature, according to a study in a pre-printed server shared and confirmed is CERN’s official website.
CERN went just beyond the standard model
The Large Hadron Collider (LHCb) experiment at CERN has officially announced new findings suggesting that the standard model in particle physics is being violated. This comes from an analysis of ten 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 point to a possible violation of the universal lepton odor – announced during the Moriond conference on electro-weak interactions of unified theories, in addition to an online CERN seminar by the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
The standard model is based on our scientific understanding of the subatomic world and believes that particles will tend to break down in products such as electrons at exactly the same rate as in heavier particles, very similar to an electron called muons.
However, new findings from CERN suggest that something strange is going on. Instead of decaying in accordance with the standard model and producing muons and electrons at the same rate, B-mesons tend toward electron production, as if it were the favorite result.
‘Interesting tip’ is still too early to call
“We would expect this particle to decay in the final state with electrons and the final state with muons at the same rate as each other,” said experimental particle physicist Chris Parkes of the University of Manchester in a report by The guardian. “What we have is an interesting hint that these two processes may not be happening at the same pace, but they are not conclusive.”
In quantum physics, the new finding has a significance of 3.1 sigma, meaning that the probability of accuracy is about one in 1,000. To those less familiar with quantum physics, it may sound promising, but in general, particle physicists are wary of jumping the gun until a new finding reaches five sigma, while the chances of the results being a fluke are only one out of ‘ a few million.
“It’s an interesting tip, but we’ve seen sigmas come and go before,” Parkes said. “It happens surprisingly often.”
In particle physics, the standard model describes how particles and forces govern the subatomic universe. The theory has been built piece by piece over the past half century and helps scientists describe how elementary particles, quarks, neutrons and protons construct in atomic nuclei. It also explains how the two components of nuclei in combination with electrons make up all conventional materials.
New shade on the standard model
In particle physics, three of the four fundamental forces in nature are included: the weak force responsible for nuclear reactions in the sun, and electromagnetism; a strong force that binds atomic nuclei together.
Unfortunately, the standard model does not explain everything. There is still a fourth force in the universe, one that is probably better known: gravity, which – although incredibly powerful on the colossal scale of black holes – is not responsible for about 95% of the universe that physicists suspected to consist of something completely different.
Consensus was and remains that most of the universe consists of dark energy, a cosmic force responsible for pushing the expansion of the universe for its entire life, and also dark matter – an elusive substance that the cosmic web of matter holds together – like an unseen skeleton.
However, this recent possible finding has to do with particle physics. En “[i]If it turns out that, with additional analysis of additional processes, we could confirm this, it would be extremely exciting, “Parkes said. It would cast a new shadow on the standard model and create a need for something additional in the fundamental theory. of particle physics, he added.
Corrections also bring us closer to a unified theory of physics
And Parkes thinks this latest research creates a more compelling possibility when compared to other similar results of experimenting with B-mesons.
“I would say there is cautious excitement,” Parkes said. “We are intrigued because not only is this result very important, but it also fits in with the previous results of LHCb and other experiments worldwide.”
“There could be a new quantum force that causes B-mesons to break up in muons at the wrong rate,” Ben Allanach, professor of theoretical physics, told the University of Cambridge. “It keeps them together and prevents them from falling into muzzle at the rate we would expect.”
“This force can help explain the peculiar pattern of masses of different dust particles,” Allanach added. Although it has not yet been confirmed, particle physics develops and with it – the form of a fundamental unifying theory of physics.
It was a striking story and was regularly updated as new information became available.