Two Particle Accelerators Find Evidence of New Four-Quark Particle
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[quote](Phys.org) —Two research teams working independently at two different particle accelerators have found evidence of what appears to be a four-quark particle that has come to be called Zc(3900). Both teams are made up of a large number of researchers affiliated with institutions from around the world and both have published their findings in separate papers in the journal Physical Review Letters.
The discovery of what appears to be a new particle has come about at the two sites (the Belle and BESIII experiments in Japan and China, respectively) as a result of research into Y(4260), a particle discovered in 2005. Physicists have been intrigued by Y(4260) as it appears to be made of a charmed quark, an anti-charmed quark and an extra gluon (in addition to the gluons holding the quarks together). In studying the decay of Y(4260)—which is found in the debris after smashing electrons and positrons together in their respective accelerators—both research teams noticed a spike of energy of about 3.9 gigaelectronvolts, which, as it turns out, is approximately four times the weight of a proton. That suggested evidence of a particle with four quarks, something that has never been seen before.[/quote]
[url]http://phys.org/news/2013-06-collider-teams-evidence-particle-z3900.html[/url]
Hot damn, how unexpected.
Fun fact (your mileage may vary): The head of my physics department does a lot of his research in collaboration with the Belle detector, the detector in Japan which found the particle. Some undergrads in the department are currently helping to assemble their new detector and may get to go to Japan to help install it.
What does it mean when a quark is "charmed"
[QUOTE=Blazyd;41106018]What does it mean when a quark is "charmed"[/QUOTE]
Nothing special, that's just the name of one of the six different quarks: up, down, strange, charm, top, and bottom.
Ah, yes, so now we have the pion, the proton, and the Z[sub]c[/sub](3900).
Also, I love how the article demonstrates science just has to be [I]absolutely sure[/I]. "The teams found 460 of the particles, [I]suggesting[/I] that the particle exists."
[QUOTE=Blazyd;41106018]What does it mean when a quark is "charmed"[/QUOTE]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izGwDsrQ1eQ[/media]
[QUOTE=Last or First;41106065]Also, I love how the article demonstrates science just has to be [I]absolutely sure[/I]. "The teams found 460 of the particles, [I]suggesting[/I] that the particle exists."[/QUOTE]
Yep. That's how (good) physics works.
"Holy shit, guys! We found a particle which is in the energy range in which we expect the Higgs boson with 4 sigma confidence which may or may not be the Higgs boson!"
[QUOTE=Blazyd;41106018]What does it mean when a quark is "charmed"[/QUOTE]
it's puttin out tonight fo sho
Incredible!
What does this mean?
[QUOTE=Cheshire_cat;41106399]Incredible!
What does this mean?[/QUOTE]
flying cars and jetpacks and a pill that's a whole meal
[QUOTE=JXZ;41106419]flying cars and jetpacks and a pill that's a whole meal[/QUOTE]
I was promised free vampirism, they better not cop out.
Holy shit guys do you even know what this means.
We're making this happen.
What are we making happen?
What does this mean guys seriously i'm lost.
What's a atom?
[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;41106037]Nothing special, that's just the name of one of the six different quarks: up, down, strange, charm, top, and bottom.[/QUOTE]
Couldn't they pick reasonable names like up, down, top, bottom, front, and back instead of using "strange" and "charm"?
I'm guessing the quarks don't correspond with any current layman's notion of the direction they're named after anyway so would it have hurt them to stick to a theme
Ok.... and what does it do?
QUARKS! What is your profession!
My Quarks: (got bored...)
[img]http://i.imgur.com/IO2MmSM.png[/img]
[QUOTE=Zeke129;41106814]Couldn't they pick reasonable names like up, down, top, bottom, front, and back instead of using "strange" and "charm"?
I'm guessing the quarks don't correspond with any current layman's notion of the direction they're named after anyway so would it have hurt them to stick to a theme[/QUOTE]
Well their name came from Finnegans Wake so I guess the names of the flavors make no sense in keeping with that same spirit.
So this isn't a meson or a baryon..
Excuse my while I tip my world upside down.
For those who want to learn more about quarks and don't want to get a physics degree
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0kXkWXSXRA[/media]
I love that song.
[QUOTE=Bradyns;41114185]So this isn't a meson or a baryon..
Excuse my while I tip my world upside down.[/QUOTE]
Yes, this is very life altering stuff.
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