Three “exotic” particles reportedly seen for the first time by scientists at CERN
CERN, a European nuclear research centre, announced on Tuesday that scientists using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) had discovered three subatomic particles that had never been seen before in their quest to understand the fundamental nature of matter.
The Higgs boson particle and its associated energy field were discovered by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a machine measuring 27 kilometres (16.8 miles) in length at CERN. This particle and its role in the construction of the cosmos after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago are considered crucial.
Researchers at CERN have announced the discovery of a new type of “pentaquark” and the first-ever pair of “tetraquarks” bringing the total number of new hadrons discovered at the LHC to three.
They will be useful for physicists trying to figure out how quarks combine to form new particles.
Hadrons, like the protons and neutrons that make up atomic nuclei, are composed of quarks, fundamental particles that typically unite in pairs or threes.
Then can also combine form tetraquarks and pentaquarks, particles with four and five quarks respectively, however these combinations are much less common.
According to scientist Niels Tuning’s statement, “The more analyses we perform, the more kinds of exotic hadrons we find,”
“We’re witnessing a period of discovery similar to the 1950s, when a ‘particle zoo’ of hadrons started being discovered and ultimately led to the quark model of conventional hadrons in the 1960s. We’re creating ‘particle zoo 2.0’.”
