Strange Particle Created; May Rewrite How Matter's Made

A particle detector as big as a three-story house records the "debris" emerging from high-energy proton-antiproton collisions in the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Data from such detectors revealed an unexpected new subatomic particle that may break all known rules governing how matter is created, scientists said in March 2009. Image courtesy Fermilab

From National Geographic:

An unexpected new subatomic particle has been discovered in Illinois's Fermilab atom smasher, scientists announced this week.

The new particle may break all known rules for creating matter, say the researchers who created the oddity.

Y(4140)—as the new particle has been dubbed—couldn't have formed through either of the two known models for matter creation. Researchers aren't even sure what Y(4140) is made of.

It's long been accepted that six different "flavors" of particles called quarks combine to form larger subatomic particles.

In one method, a quark pairs with one of its opposites, an antiquark, to create a type of matter called a meson. In the second method, three quarks gather to form baryons, such as protons and neutrons.

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