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Scientists at TU Wien (Vienna) have calculated that the meson f0(1710) could be a very special particle -- the long-sought-after glueball, a particle composed of pure force. The prediction that glueballs exist is one of the most important of the Standard Model of particle physics that has not yet been confirmed experimentally. For decades, scientists have been looking for so-called "glueballs". Now it seems they have been found at last. A glueball is an exotic particle, made up entirely of gluons -- the "sticky" particles that keep nuclear particles together. Glueballs are unstable and can only be detected indirectly, by...

...The properties and mass of the LHC's Higgs boson suggest that physicists will soon find superpartners for particles, and that we have begun to connect string theory to the real world... Physicists thought that a Higgs boson, when discovered, would take this supersymmetric form, so how have we discovered one so apparently identical to the impossible standard-model version? Working out how to interpret this could be a large step towards the underlying broader theory that will extend the standard model. One explanation could come from an unexpected source: string theory or its extension, M-theory. Contrary to what you may have...

Correct calculation strengthens theory of quark-gluon interactions in nuclear particles When it comes to weighty matters, quarks and gluons rule the universe, a new study confirms. One of the largest computational efforts to calculate the masses of protons and neutrons shows that the standard model of particle physics predicts those masses with an uncertainty of less than 4 percent. Christian Hoelbling, affiliated with the Bergische Universtät Wuppertal in Germany, the Eötvös University in Budapest and the CNRS in Marseille, France, and his colleagues report their findings in the Nov. 21 Science. Nearly all the mass of ordinary matter consists of...

Abstract: Among a fringe community of paranoids, aluminum helmets serve as the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals. We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals. Using a $250,000 network analyser, we find that although on average all helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies in either directions (either emanating from an outside source, or emanating from the cranium of the subject), certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified. These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use...

The unexpected finding could provide insight into the creation of the universe, scientists say. Researchers smashing gold atoms together to mimic conditions in the first microseconds after the creation of the universe have observed an unexpected new state of matter. Instead of the thin, fiery gas of quarks and gluons that they expected, they found instead a dense drop of the elementary particles that behaves like a hitherto unseen "perfect fluid." It is "a truly stunning finding," said Raymond L. Orbach, director of the Department of Energy's Office of Science. Quarks are the fundamental building blocks of protons, neutrons and...

OAKLAND, Calif., Jan. 13 — At least three advanced diagnostic tests suggest that an experiment at the Brookhaven National Laboratory has cracked open protons and neutrons like subatomic eggs to create a primordial form of matter that last existed when the universe was roughly one-millionth of a second old, scientists said here on Tuesday. The hot, dense substance, called a quark-gluon plasma, has managed to generate intense disputes in the 15 years or so in which scientists have pursued it. In 2000, a major European laboratory claimed that it had, for the first time, liberated particles called quarks from where...