Posted on 09/01/2009 11:08:54 AM PDT by neverdem
Report hints at the existence of a new and massive elementary particle
In a weak moment, researchers have found an unexpected asymmetry in particle production that could hint at exotic physics. The tentative evidence, announced August 21, could be the fingerprint of a massive elementary particle that would help unify three of the four known forces in nature.
The physicists collected data for nearly a decade at the Belle particle accelerator experiment in Tsukuba, Japan. In the experiment, known as a B factory, beams of electrons and positrons collide to produce millions of pairs of B mesons and anti-B mesons. Such particles live brief but eventful lives, decaying through the weak nuclear force — the same force that powers some radioactivity and helps keep the sun burning.
In a mere 1.5 trillionths of a second, B mesons and their antiparticles disintegrate in any of hundreds of ways. In one of the more unusual decay paths — so rare it happens only about once in every million decays — a B meson turns into a particle called a K* meson and a particle-antiparticle pair. This pair can include an electron and its positively charged partner, the positron, or a heavier cousin to an electron, the muon, and its positively charged partner, the anti-muon.
The Belle team found that the number of positrons or anti-muons released in one direction, the direction of travel of the K* meson, doesn’t equal the number released in the opposite direction. The standard model of particle physics predicts such an asymmetry because the weak interaction picks a preferred direction in space. Physicists several decades ago traced this preference to massive messenger particles that mediate the interaction. As a result, the mirror image of a physical process involving the weak interaction doesn’t look the same as the original...
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
The Belle team found that the number of positrons or anti-muons released in one direction, the direction of travel of the K* meson, doesn't equal the number released in the opposite direction. The standard model of particle physics predicts such an asymmetry because the weak interaction picks a preferred direction in space. Physicists several decades ago traced this preference to massive messenger particles that mediate the interaction. As a result, the mirror image of a physical process involving the weak interaction doesn't look the same as the original.My second grade class proved this using some old coffee cans, a nine-volt battery, and a box of red licorice. Yes, even in science projects, the red licorice is preferred. ;') Thanks neverdem for the topic, BenLurkin for the ping, and martin_fierro for the comic. :')
I typically am in complete agreement with you. You made such terse comments that it is hard to know what you think or even what you were saying about this particular subject, so it is hard to judge what you do or don’t understand from this thread. Forgive me if you took my statements as talking down to you instead of being educational.
thanks, for the information / ping / thread / post. 
I think, I understood....
....A great "nothingness", Is there...
can almost feel it (scientifically).
Here is a LINK relating to this announcement that has a bit more information than this posted article, as well as a couple pretty diagrams.
Thanks for the link.
I agree with #18; scientists and technical staff are generally at work 7 days a week if something interesting is going on. They would have lunch brought in by an intern or delivered. Nothing in your semi-sarcastic (I think) comment resembles anything I saw in a National Lab.
Thanks AFPhys.
“I think I lost my electron”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m positive”
*groaner* You bad. */groaner* 
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