Monday, June 13, 2011

New 'Subatomic Particle' Likely A Fluke

The CDF detector, about the size of a three-story house, weighs about 6,000 tons. It recrods the "debris" emerging from each high-energy proton-antiproton collision produced by the Tevatron. CREDIT: Fermilab

From Live Science:

A report in April suggesting a giant atom smasher may have detected a never-seen-before subatomic particle had physicists at the edge of their seats with hope, albeit with a healthy dose of skepticism. Now an independent test of the results suggests it was just a fluke.

The tantalizing signal came from the Tevatron particle accelerator at the Fermilab physics laboratory in Batavia, Ill. Inside the accelerator there, particles race around a 4-mile (6.3 km) ring at near light speed. When two particles collide, they disintegrate into other exotic particles in a powerful outpouring of energy. [Wacky Physics: The Coolest Little Particles in Nature]

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