Cern experiment hints at new force of nature

[muriel_volestrangler]

Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva have spotted an unusual signal in their data that may be the first hint of a new kind of physics.

The LHCb collaboration, one of four main teams at the LHC, analysed 10 years of data on how unstable particles called B mesons, created momentarily in the vast machine, decayed into more familiar matter such as electrons.

The mathematical framework that underpins scientists’ understanding of the subatomic world, known as the standard model of particle physics, firmly maintains that the particles should break down into products that include electrons at exactly the same rate as they do into products that include a heavier cousin of the electron, a particle called a muon.

But results released by Cern on Tuesday suggest that something unusual is happening. The B mesons are not decaying in the way the model says they should: instead of producing electrons and muons at the same rate, nature appears to favour the route that ends with electrons.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/mar/23/large-hadron-collider-scientists-particle-physics

New results on theoretically clean observables in rare B-meson decays from LHCb

Over the past decade, measurements involving the flavour changing neutral current transition 𝑏?𝑠ℓ+ℓ? have shown tantalising tensions with Standard Model (SM) predictions. However, our current understanding of the hadronic uncertainties in these predictions potentially hinders our ability to interpret these results as physics beyond the SM. In order to resolve this impasse, measurements of observables that are theoretically pristine in processes that are accidentally suppressed in the SM are of paramount importance. In this two-part seminar, we will present new results on two key processes using the complete dataset collected by the LHCb experiment so far.

https://indico.cern.ch/event/976688/

Live webcast starting in half an hour at the above address.

[soothsayer]

1. Very interesting

I might have to peek at the live webcast.

I’m in! Just a fly on the wall.

[WHITT]

2. There Have Been Predictions

they could discover particles entering and exiting dimensions.

[TexasTowelie]

3. Are those omega muons?

Okay, I'm trying to link this OP to the Revenge of the Nerds movies for the sake of levity.

Scientists have a sense of humor too.