The world's largest atom smasher has revealed a new kind of particle, and so far, it leads a charmed existence.
The discovery of the particle, which is made up of two so-called charm quarks, validates the predictions of the Standard Model, the current reigning model of particle physics.
The new particle was discovered at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 16-mile-long (27 kilometers) underground ring near Geneva, Switzerland, where protons zoom at near light-speed before smashing into each other. As the protons disintegrated in a recent experiment, the new particle, called the Xi-cc-plus-plus (the "Xi" is pronounced "ksi"), emerged.
The discovery of the particle, which is made up of two so-called charm quarks, validates the predictions of the Standard Model, the current reigning model of particle physics.
The new particle was discovered at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 16-mile-long (27 kilometers) underground ring near Geneva, Switzerland, where protons zoom at near light-speed before smashing into each other. As the protons disintegrated in a recent experiment, the new particle, called the Xi-cc-plus-plus (the "Xi" is pronounced "ksi"), emerged.