The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) may have uncovered a clue about a particle that may call into question the Standard Model of Physics. The new finding actually may reveal the first traces of physics beyond the current theory.
This latest discovery, though, can't really be called a discovery yet. Instead, the researchers have found indications that reveal a bit more about physics as we know-or don't know-it.
"To put it in terms of the cinema, where we once only had a few leaked scenes from a much-anticipated blockbuster, the LHC has finally treated fans to the first real trailers," said Mariusz Witek of the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN).
The Standard Model of Physics describes the structure of matter. Particles, in particular, function in different roles in this model. As an example, bosons are the carriers of forces while photons are related to electromagnetic interactions. The Higgs Boson is actually responsible for providing particles with mass-except for gluons and photons.
"Up to now all measurements match the predictions of the Standard Model," Witek said. "However, we know that the Standard Model cannot explain all the features of the universe. It doesn't predict the masses of particles or tell us why fermions are organized in three families. How did the dominance of matter over antimatter in the universe come about? What is dark matter? Those questions remain unanswered. What's more, the force we all experience every day, gravity, isn't even included in the model."
Currently, researchers are focusing on detecting new particles beyond the Standard Model. In 2011, the researchers saw a puzzling anomaly with a beauty meson, which is composed of a light quark and a heavy beauty antiquark. The researchers also detected an anomaly in the decay of a B meson that contained two muons along with other products.
"While searching for new phenomena or new particles, it is assumed that when the effect differs from more than three standard deviations - 3 sigma - that is an indication, but we cannot talk of a discovery until the rate of accuracy rises to 5 sigma," Marcin Chrzaszcz from IFJ PAN said. "To put it slightly differently, 5 sigma means that we have a probability of less than one to three-and-a-half million that random fluctuations can provide a result like that seen. At the presently observed number of such decays the accuracy of our analysis has reached a deviation of 3.7 sigma. So we still cannot make claims of a discovery, but we certainly have an interesting clue."
The researchers aren't exactly sure what's causing these anomalies, but they have a theory. It could be down to a new intermediate Z-prime boson that's involved in the decay of B mesons.
The findings, published in the Journal of High Energy Physics, could tell researchers a little more about the physics in our universe.
