LHCb/CERN: Particle composed of 4 quarks found.

With a sigma of 13.9 a new kind of particle was found at CERN with the LHCb-detector.
Scanning of over 180*10^9 collisions has found 4.000 candidates for the theoretically proposed particle called Z(4430)-.

The unusual part of this?

Normal matter is composed of atoms which are composed of 3 quarks per proton and nucleon.
This baby has 4 quarks. Consequences? Unknown yet, but maybe Apple will include it in their iPhone 7s.. Who knows? Meh, it would decay far too fast to be of any usefullness, but it IS a new thing.

Source on arxiv

Very interesting news and gives a new and interesting way / paths for testing the standard model and refining it. Evidence for a Tetraquark binding has been around for a little while, but this is the clincher with huge amounts of data and a massive sigma level discovery that leaves the possibility of it being a statistical fluctuation at worse odds than a lottery win.

Another hypothetical binding was the pentaquark, I remember there being a 4-5 sigma evidence/discovery but the interaction region is still being searched and the jury is out on if it is real or not

reply to post by ManFromEurope


Wow - that gives me a Hadron.

And I didn't understand any of it.

CyberSonic
reply to post by ManFromEurope

 

Wow - that gives me a Hadron.

1. Did you make that up up yourself? If you did, then

2. Can I borrow that line?



back on topic, (to appease the mods)...

OP --

You mentioned that this tertraquark decays quickly. What does it decay into? A three-quark baryon? If yes, where does the fourth quark go?

If my question is meaningless and seems to come from an ignorance of the subject, please excuse me; I have a layman's interest in the subatomic world, but I am just that -- a layman. I don't have a great understanding of particle interactions and sub-atomic structures.

reply to post by ManFromEurope


I've assumed ever since more than one quark was discovered that we still have a long way to go to find the real building block of the universe. Quarks took that slot for quite awhile but something else is likely to pop out of the mix with all these collisions going on over at CERN, especially when it finally revs up to its highest speed and energy.

personally wondering if there is any 'beyond the standard model' physics to be found... so far... nope... which is kind of annoying.

Soylent Green Is People

CyberSonic
reply to post by ManFromEurope

 

Wow - that gives me a Hadron.

1. Did you make that up up yourself? If you did, then

No, that's just his spin on it, which he considers charming.

schuyler

Soylent Green Is People

CyberSonic
reply to post by ManFromEurope

 

Wow - that gives me a Hadron.

1. Did you make that up up yourself? If you did, then

No, that's just his spin on it, which he considers charming.

That's a strange thing to say, I need to get to the bottom of this...

CyberSonic
Wow - that gives me a Hadron.

schuyler
No, that's just his spin on it, which he considers charming.

MarsIsRed
That's a strange thing to say, I need to get to the bottom of this...

I think you people are up to no good. Something must be going down.

However, the truth of it is that I am old-school. I think there is some beauty in the past old-school way of seeing things.

double post.
sorry

Even more interesting, to me, is that it is composed of 2 quarks and 2 anti-quarks.