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New particles get a mass boost
October 02, 2007NEWPORT NEWS, VA - A sophisticated, new analysis has revealed that the next frontier in particle physics is farther away than once thought. New forms of matter not predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics are most likely twice as massive as theorists had previously calculated, according to a just-published study.
The discovery is noteworthy because experimental improvements of this magnitude rarely occur more often than once in a decade.
To see the infinitely small bits of matter that make up our universe, physicists build ever more powerful accelerators, which are the microscopes they use to see matter. But while the trend is to more powerful accelerators, the precision achieved by some less powerful ones can pinpoint the best places to look for never-before-seen particles.
Scientists at the Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility combined data from experiments in which electrons were used to precisely probe the nucleus of the atom. The experiments were designed to study the weak nuclear force, one of the four forces of nature. The effects of the weak force on the building blocks of the proton, up and down quarks, were determined precisely from this data and were found to be in agreement with predictions.
But when this new analysis was combined with other measurements, it raised the predicted mass scale for the discovery of new particles to about one Tera-electron-volts (1 TeV) - more than a factor of two higher than previously thought, according to Jefferson Lab scientists who published the result in Physical Review Letters.
Searches for new particles can take the form of direct production of new particles by high-energy interactions or by lower-energy, extremely precise measurements of experimental observables, which are sensitive to the existence of new particles beyond the ability of existing theories to predict.
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
Scientists at the Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility combined data from experiments in which electrons were used to precisely probe the nucleus of the atom. The experiments were designed to study the weak nuclear force, one of the four forces of nature. The effects of the weak force on the building blocks of the proton, up and down quarks, were determined precisely from this data and were found to be in agreement with predictions.
But when this new analysis was combined with other measurements, it raised the predicted mass scale for the discovery of new particles to about one Tera-electron-volts (1 TeV) - more than a factor of two higher than previously thought, according to Jefferson Lab scientists who published the result in Physical Review Letters.
Searches for new particles can take the form of direct production of new particles by high-energy interactions or by lower-energy, extremely precise measurements of experimental observables, which are sensitive to the existence of new particles beyond the ability of existing theories to predict.
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
Particle Physics Current Events and Particle Physics News RSSNASA's Fermi Telescope Detects Gamma-Ray From
Nearby galaxies undergoing a furious pace of star formation also emit lots of gamma rays, say astronomers using NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.
Gamma-ray photon race ends in dead heat; Einstein wins this round
Racing across the universe for the last 7.3 billion years, two gamma-ray photons arrived at NASA's orbiting Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope within nine-tenths of a second of one another.
Scientists use world's fastest supercomputer to model origins of the unseen universe
Understanding dark energy is the number one issue in explaining the universe, according to Salman Habib, of the Laboratory's Nuclear and Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology group.
A tiny, tunable well of light, and a string theorist's toolbox
Photonics, the science of using photons to carry information, promises to continue improving a wide variety of technologies, from computing to high-speed communication.
Theoretical nuclear physics in China
In recent years several Large-Scale Scientific Facilities (LSSF) for nuclear, hadronic, and particle physics have been upgraded and constructed in China.
SLAC Researchers Reveal the Dance of Water
Water is familiar to everyone-it shapes our bodies and our planet. But despite this abundance, the molecular structure of water has remained a mystery, with the substance exhibiting many strange properties that are still poorly understood.
First Black Holes Born Starving
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SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to Receive Additional $21.8M in Recovery Act Funding for New Research Instruments
The Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory will receive $21.8 million in new funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The funding will catalyze instrumentation construction and improvements at the laboratory's two light source research facilities, the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL).
NASA's Fermi Finds Gamma-ray Galaxy Surprises
Back in June 1991, just before the launch of NASA's Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, astronomers knew of gamma rays from exactly one galaxy beyond our own.
Simulations Illuminate Universe's First Twin Stars
The earliest stars in the universe formed not only as individuals, but sometimes also as twins, according to a paper published today in Science Express.
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