At the Large Hadron Collider, physicists discovered a hadron that turned out to be doubly strange: it achieves many very unique properties until then.

Much of the visible matter around you in the universe is made up of quarks. These elementary particles combine to form complex particles called hadrons – protons and neutrons are part of them. These hadrons usually consist of two to three quarks. But physicists have discovered, in recent years, the existence of “alien” hardons consisting of an even greater amount of quarks.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), where the Large Hadron Collider (particle accelerator) is located, announced on July 29, 2021 that it has Discover A new exotic hadron of this type. It is a quark, i.e. a hadron consisting of two quarks and two antiquarks. Physicists called it the beautiful name Tcc +.

Except that this quad is more unusual than many of the others, because it’s more than usual. ” This discovery is a strange hadron discovery that is unique in some way “,” announces CERN.

double “magic”

To understand what makes this exotic hadron so unique, we must first remember that quarks are defined by what physicists call “flavors.” There are several more poetic names: lowestAnd higherAnd strangeAnd CharmAnd BeautyAnd fact. These flavors refer to quantum values. To plot, hadrons are made of quarks Charm and antiquark Charm A quantum number equals zero. In fact, quarks Charm It fetches the value 2, but the magic of the antiquark is antimatter, it brings the same opposite value, -2, which cancels out at 0.

The newly discovered exotic hadron, Tcc+, contains two charm quarks. But it does not contain two antiquarks Charm. The other two quarks are a higher and one lowest. quarks Charm Add up, without balancing. ” In this case, the quantum number in magic is two, so it has twice as much magic! CERN Comments.

That’s not all, because there are flavors higher And lowest For antiquarks, facing a quarkin Charm, is also a very unique new discovery. Flavors higher And lowest lighter than Charm. « It is the first particle discovered that belongs to a class of tetraquarks with two heavy quarks and two light antiquarks. CERN explains.

“Tcc+ is the longest-lived exotic hadron discovered so far.”

However, this defect has an effect on the decay speed of hadrons: because its decay must be more complex, it has a long lifetime, which is again unique to this type of particle. ” In fact, Tcc+ is the longest-running exotic hadron discovered to date. »

CERN describes this particle as ” Fascinating He concludes his announcement by noting the continuation of this quartet “tetraquark Tcc+” Attractive target for further study This could make a valuable contribution to testing current physical models and provide access to hitherto inaccessible aspects. Besides new tasks targeting this doubly strange particle, there are still other particles to be discovered that could be doubly strange in their own way. own.

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