23/12/2011

Collider Finds New Particle To Physics

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has made its first official discovery as researchers continue to pour through libraries of data.

The CERN particle accelerator near Geneva is to report its first clear observation of a new particle since beginning its experiments in 2009.

The particle is a type of boson known as Chi-b (3P) and is responsible for communicating forces between minute quantum distances.

The discovery, which was made after scientists observed unexpected "mass peaks" has not yet been published, but was reported on the Arxiv pre-print server.

The LHC is the largest and most sophisticated man-made construction in history. The huge underground circuit accelerates protons at speeds close to the speed of light and smashes them together.

Scientists then hunt through the debris produced in magnetic detectors, to assess the composition of particles on the smallest scales.

The Chi-b (3P) is an excited state of Chi particles already seen in previous collision experiments.

The news comes only a week after it emerged scientists have come close to identifying the sought after Higgs Boson. The search for the deeply mysterious particle was one of the chief reasons behind building the multi-billion euro collider, and understanding its properties could explain how and even why particles have mass.

(DW/GK)

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