Large Hadron Collider team finds new type of boson - Northern Voices Online

Finally to their relief Large Hadron Collider team has found new type of boson. Scientists monitoring the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider claim that they have clear evidence of one new particle, though it might not yet be the elusive Higgs boson.

The newly-discovered chi b(3P) boson is a heavier variant of a previously-known particle. It represents a new way of bringing together a beauty quark and its antiquark so that they bind together. Despite being predicted by many theories before, the particle was seen by the scientists for the first time.

Professor Roger Jones, head of the Lancaster ATLAS group, said, "While people are rightly interested in the Higgs boson, which we believe gives particles their mass and may have started to reveal itself, a lot of the mass of everyday objects comes from the strong interaction we are investigating using the chi b."

Unlike the Higgs, the chi b(3P) isn't made up of smaller particles. chi b(3P) is a combination of two very heavy objects which are held together by the same strong nuclear force which holds the atomic nucleus together.

Andy Chisholm, a PhD student from the University of Birmingham, said, "Analysing the billions of particle collisions at the LHC is fascinating. There are potentially all kinds of interesting things buried in the data, and we were lucky to look in the right place at the right time." He has worked on the analysis.

Dr Miriam Watson, a research fellow working in the Birmingham group, said, "The lighter partners of the chi b(3P) were observed around twenty five years ago. Our new measurements are a great way to test theoretical calculations of the forces that act on fundamental particles, and will move us a step closer to understanding how the universe is held together."

Since its inauguration in 2009, this is the Large Hadron Collider's  (LHC) first clear observation of a new particle. The Chi_b (3P) will help scientists understand better the forces that hold matter together. The LHC is trying to explain some fundamental questions in "big physics" by colliding proton particles together in a huge underground facility. The details of these collisions are expected to yield new information about the way the Universe is constructed.

Prof Roger Jones explained that the Chi_b (3P) is a more excited state of Chi particles already seen in previous collision experiments. He added, "The new particle is made up of a 'beauty quark' and a 'beauty anti-quark', which are then bound together. People have thought this more excited state should exist for years but nobody has managed to see it until now. It's also interesting for what it tells us about the forces that hold the quark and the anti-quark together – the strong nuclear force. And that's the same force that holds, for instance, the atomic nucleus together with its protons and the neutrons."

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