Physicists find 'rebel' particle

BBC ^ | 30 April, 2003, 11:16 GMT 12:16 UK | By Dr David Whitehouse

[alnitak]

Physicists find 'rebel' particle

By Dr David Whitehouse

BBC News Online science editor

Physicists have found a new subatomic particle, named Ds (2317). It will help them better understand the building blocks of matter.

Inside the BaBar detector

The particle consists of an unusual combination of more fundamental particles - quarks.

Two quarks form Ds (2317) and, curiously, its properties are not what theory predicted.

The announcement was made by physicist Antimo Palano to a packed auditorium at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (Slac) in the US.

The discovery was made by the BaBar international consortium, which operates a detector at Slac that analyses debris from subatomic particle collisions.

'Back to the drawing boards'

"Congratulations to BaBar," said Slac's director, Jonathan Dorfan.

"The existence of the particle is not a surprise, but its mass is lower than expected. This result will send theorists back to their drawing boards."

The peak in the data betrays the new particle's existence

Quarks are fundamental particles of which there are six types present in nature. The "up" and "down" quarks are the lightest, and are found within the nuclei of atoms of ordinary matter.

There are also the "charm", "strange", as well as the "top" and "bottom" quarks. These are heavier than the up and down quarks. Quarks can also have antiparticles such as anti-down, etc.

Heavier quarks were present in the early Universe and are created today in particle accelerators and in collisions of cosmic rays with atoms in the Earth's atmosphere.

The Ds (2317) combines a charm quark with another heavy quark - an anti-strange quark.

'From unexpected directions'

Physicists are hailing its discovery as important because it has unexpected properties that will provide insight into the force that binds the quarks together.

This force, unlike most others in nature, becomes stronger as the distance between the two quarks increases.

Marcello Giorgi, from the University of Pisa, Italy, who leads the BaBar collaboration, said: "Sometimes, the most exciting discoveries come from unexpected directions. There has been a buzz of excitement in the experiment in the past few weeks.

Slac fires particles along a track

"We have discovered a new charm particle in an experiment designed to probe the difference between matter and antimatter using bottom quarks."

Bob Cahn, a BaBar collaborator from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, US, added: "The unexpected mass will make us look again at the forces between quarks and will stimulate new interest in charm-quark systems."

And Dr Raymond Orbach, director of the US Energy Department's Office of Science, said: "The BaBar experiment continues to produce important new knowledge adding to our fundamental understanding of the structure of matter."

[longshadow]

If the force is proportional to distance, you can only pull a quark and an antiquark so far apart before you put in enough energy to pry a new quark-antiquark pair out of the vacuum.

Fascinating; very similar to pulling on a spring, until you exceed the elastic limit ......

[dljordan]

You forgot the Rebel flag.

[PatrickHenry]

Your reply to PH was simply delightful; succinct and chock-full of fascinating info.

Well, my question was answered, that's for sure. As for that zinger about the age of the universe ... yeah, it was pretty good.

[general_re]

And there's no Top Quark. Quarks exist in an autonomous hadronic collective.

So then this rebel particle is the "Che" quark?

[xm177e2]

"The existence of the particle is not a surprise, but its mass is lower than expected. This result will send theorists back to their drawing boards."

The atheist Einsteinians keep changing their theories. It's obvious that "particle physics" is only partly science. They believe it like some people believe religion. How could so many billions of particles all act on their own to follow the laws of nature? What a silly thing to suggest. Obviously, the correct and scientific theory is "intelligent manipulation"--the guiding hand of some higher power moves the molecules Himself. That theory hasn't changed in a hundred years--which is proof that it's more scientifically valid than "Einsteinian" particle physics. The scientists keep changing their minds--is that really scientific?

[xm177e2]

Scientists discover "Rebel" particle.

Has anyone told the NAACP yet?

"Don't Back SLAC, It's on the attack!"
"Physics is Racism"

[longshadow]

As for that zinger about the age of the universe ... yeah, it was pretty good.

"Say 'goodnight,' Gracie."

[alnitak]

Einstein wasn't an atheist. All scientific theories undergo change, that's the scientific method. Many physicists believe in God. The laws of nature are mere models/approximations of the way the universe works, the universe doesn't "obey" them. "Intelligent manipulation", whatever that is, is not a scientific theory. Molecules are not particles. Einstein didn't invent particle physics, and definitely not quantum physics. He didn't even like some of its conclusions. "Proof by assertion" is not a valid basis for scientific reasoning.

Apart from that your post was accurate.

[general_re]

Sometimes it's hard to tell until you've been here a while and you've gotten to know people, but I'm tolerably certain that xm's post was heavily sarcastic ;)

[longshadow]

Sometimes it's hard to tell until you've been here a while and you've gotten to know people, but I'm tolerably certain that xm's post was heavily sarcastic ;)

Thus proving the utility of using the ever-popular </ sarcasm> tag....

[general_re]

Thus proving the utility of using the ever-popular </ sarcasm> tag....

I find that it's always dangerous to assume that you're so far over the top that nobody could possibly take you seriously ;)

[AndrewC]

I assume this is the reason that no free quarks exist in nature. Still, it's a darn curious thing.

No they just decided to change the rules recently. Pay better attention. Protons, for the moment, do not "decay".

[AndrewC]

Color Force

A property of quarks labeled color is an essential part of the quark model. The force between quarks is called the color force. Since quarks make up the baryons, and the strong interaction takes place between baryons, you could say that the color force is the source of the strong interaction, or that the strong interaction is like a residual color force which extends beyond the proton or neutron to bind them together in a nucleus.

Inside a baryon, however, the color force has some extraordinary properties not seen in the strong interaction. The color force does not drop off with distance and is responsible for the confinement of quarks. The color force involves the exhange of gluons and is so strong that the quark-antiquark pair production energy is reached before quarks can be separated. Another property of the color force is that it appears to exert little force at short distances so that the quarks are like free particles within the confining boundary of the color force and only experience the strong confining force when they begin to get too far apart.

[Doctor Stochastic]

There may be no free quarks in nature now, but Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld, and Powell are planning to free them soon. It's not clear how this will be done without nuclear power.

[ffusco]

Tiberius
The second Roman emperor (A. D. 14-37), was a genuine Roman, a ruler faithful to his duties, just, wise, and self-contained. In his internal policies especially he is one of the most distinguished of all Roman emperors. Like Augustus he reformed and improved every department of the government, and promoted in every direction the prosperity of the empire of which Augustus Ceaser had laid the foundation.

[techcor]

I knew who Tiberius was but your question was "Why was Woody Boyd's middle name Tiberius?" I figure the answer actually was "Because his parents wanted his middle name to be Tiberius." I knew who Tiberius was but I actually don't know who Woody Boyd is. Just figured he was part of the new Star Trek that I haven't watched.

[ffusco]

Woody Tiberius Boyd was "Woody" from Cheers.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ROFL!!

[SunkenCiv]

Tachyon an extra ten per cent off... this bump looks even worse than it is... I've actually come back fifty years to post this.