Electron Appears Spherical, Squashing Hopes for New Physics Theories

[n2doc]

The most precise measurement yet of the electron’s shape casts doubt on ideas such as supersymmetry that predict a zoo of undetected particles in the universe

By Clara Moskowitz

Scientists are unanimous that their current theory of physics is incomplete. Yet every effort to expose a deeper theory has so far disappointed. Now the most sensitive test yet of the shape of an electron—a property that could expose underlying “new physics”—has failed to find hints of anything novel. The finding rules out a number of favored ideas for extending physics, including some versions of a popular idea called supersymmetry.

The result came from a search for the so-called electric dipole moment in the electron. A familiar example of a dipole is a bar magnet, which is shaped like a dumbbell with a north and a south pole. Electrons are traditionally thought of as spherical, but if they had dipole moments, they would be slightly squashed. “It’s a question of: Does the electron look the same no matter which way you look at it?” explains physicist Jony Hudson of Imperial College London. “The dipole moment is physicists’ technical way to describe if it’s symmetric or not.”

The Standard Model of particle physics, which describes all the known particles in the universe, predicts a practically zero electric dipole moment for the electron. Yet theories that include additional, yet-to-be-detected particles predict a much larger dipole moment. Physicists have been searching for this dipole moment for 50 years. Now a group called the ACME collaboration, led by David DeMille of Yale University and John Doyle and Gerald Gabrielse of Harvard University, has performed a test 10 times more sensitive than previous experiments, and still found no signs of an electric dipole moment in the electron. The electron appears to be spherical to within 0.00000000000000000000000000001 centimeter, according to ACME’s results, which were posted on the preprint site arXiv. “It’s a surprise,” says Ed Hinds, also of Imperial College London, who worked with Hudson on the previous best limit, set in 2011. “Why on Earth is it still zero?”

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http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=electron-spherical-electric-dipole-moment

[zbdent]

1. Somewhat related story ...

Wayyyyy back in the olden days (when phones had cords), I was in physics class.

The instructor was describing the speed of an electron using this analogy.

Imagine a rubber ball inside a room. It bounces around, gaining speed quickly. Soon, it will be going so fast that it will seem one entire mass.

So fast that, should you open the door to the room, it would be like walking into a wall.

And then I thought ...

"No, it wouldn't be like walking into a wall, because as soon as that door opened a crack, the ball would be going so fast that it instantly would fill the space you're in, too ..."

In other words, you would be like a fly in amber ... unable to move ... and pulverized ...

[Javaman]

5. Completely unrelated but that concept you image of a fly in amber and the rubber ball

moving really fast, just reminded me of Ice 9. I have no idea why. Perhaps that a rubber ball moving so fast that it fills all space would make an incredible Sci-fi story.

[sharp_stick]

2. Dammit now my day is ruined

Thanks a lot Clara, and Obama of course.

Fascinating article BTW.

[Blue Owl]

3. Meanwhile Rand Paul is worried about donuts

n/t

[Jim__]

4. High-energy physicists predict new family of four-quark objects

This may be a different approach to a new physics. From phys.org:

An international team of high-energy physicists says the discovery of an electrically charged subatomic particle called Zc(4020) is a sign that they have begun to unveil a whole new family of four-quark objects.

The Beijing Spectrometer (BESIII) collaboration, which includes scientists from UH Mānoa, previously announced the discovery of a mysterious four-quark particle called Zc(3900) in April 2013.

"While quarks have long been known to bind together in groups of twos or threes, these new results seem to be quickly opening the door to a previously elusive type of four-quark matter," said Frederick Harris, a professor of physics and astronomy at UH Mānoa, and a spokesman for the BESIII experiment. "The unique data sample collected by the BESIII collaboration has continued to yield a stream of clues about the nature of multi-quark objects."

The recent breakthroughs by the BESIII collaboration have come about through a dedicated study of the byproducts of the anomalous Y(4260) particle.

more ...

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Good, I won't have to change the way I draw them. nt