Subatomic Tracking Finds Clues to the Unseen Universe

New York Times ^ | January 9, 2004 | JAMES GLANZ

[68skylark]

I think I'm usually able to follow article in the ScienceTimes section of the paper. (Or at least I flatter myself enough to think I understand the article pretty well!) In this case, though, it's hard to figure out what the author is trying to say.

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[68skylark]

Sorry for the typo by the way -- it's my fault, not the NY Times. The first word in the article should be "An," not "In."

[Consort]

The existence of the new matter is predicted by an unconfirmed theory called supersymmetry.

New matter? Predicted? It's probably old matter and was newly found.

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[Consort]

...unseen matter existing side by side with ours...

Maybe it's the prechemistry or unmanifested aspect of our manifested universe of chemistry, and our universe is built upon that unseen one...which, in turn, is built upon another unseen universe, etc.

[itsahoot]

every known particle in the universe from the electron to the neutrino has a counterpart that has eluded detection.

Sort of like the Conservative GW Bush.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

4 billion of those little guys, that is a lot!

[Liberty Tree Surgeon]

According to the theory, every known particle in the universe from the electron to the neutrino has a counterpart that has eluded detection.

Yet another fact-checking gaff from the NYT, I think. Anyone can correct me if I'm wrong, but the counterparts of many particles have been detected, such as the electron/positron, right?

LTS

[philosofy123]

He has 9 little guys opposing him!

[68skylark]

I think you're right -- good catch.

[pcx99]

Most theories state that the universe should have a lot more stuff in it than we can presently detect. The missing matter is called "dark matter" because we've never actually been able to find it when the models say it should be there and detectable.

If I'm reading this correctly it appears that the missing matter exists just beside us instead of inside us. If the experiment plays out then we've found a way to explain the missing matter which would go a long way to verifying some theories about why the universe is the way it is.

I think the article goes a bit far in assuming we're detecting another universe, more likely we're detecting the additional dimentions in our existing universe that string theory predicts (point, left, right, up, down, time, and then about 8 more different directions we can't really percieve that are wrapped around the current 3d+time dimensions). Which would make the article even MORE interesting because it would confirm not only the dark matter but the additional dimensions string theory predicts.

[Tac12]

Anyone can correct me if I'm wrong, but the counterparts of many particles have been detected, such as the electron/positron, right?
I think the article refers to so called super partners of standard particles. They have names like
super partner of electron = selectron
super partner of quark = squark
super partner of photon = photino
super partner of neutrino = neutralino
Just to repeat, these super partners have never been detected.

[11B3]

The experiment is invalidated due to the allowing the muons to change quantum states. In order to keep their data clean, they must force the muons to stay in their observed state and not allow the entropy involved with the state change.

Alternately, they could take a measure of pure vacuum (or as close a humans can generate) and then try to accelerate "the fiz". If they catch anything by observing what was not there in our realm, they will have succeeded in making something cross over from an alternate reality. (But proving an alternate reality has consequences as well.)

[John H K]

Yep, super partners are different from antiparticles.

[reed_inthe_wind]

"a vast shadow universe of normally unseen matter existing side by side with ours"

But do they have the New York Times?

[hershey]

In that universe I won the powerball lottery.

[Junior]

Ping.

[Physicist]

I'll comment later. Meanwhile, Here's an old FR thread about the same experiment.

[brooklin]

I lost my ticket outside the door to the store where it was sold.