The scientists working at CERN Collider have seen evidence of the existence of a new force of nature.
Context
The scientists working at CERN Collider have seen evidence of the existence of a new force of nature.
The Standard Model of fundamental particles
- The universe is found to be constituted of a few basic building blocks which are known as fundamental particles. These particles are governed by four fundamental forces.
- The interaction between the particles and three of the forces was studied through a model of particle physics developed in the 1970s.
- The standard model says that nature is studied at a fundamental scale through particles known as lepton and quarks and the forces which exist between them.
- The beauty quarks (one of the subtypes of quark) decay into leptons known as ‘muons’.
New finding
- A difference in the decay rate of muons and electrons was observed.
- Reason: It is expected that a new unseen particle or force is behind this differential rate of decay.
- Two particles Z prime and lepto-quark are considered to be the expected particles as a part of the experiment to support the finding.
Significance of the finding
- It could help in finding the new fundamental particles which will the physical phenomenon further.
- It could help in studying the invisible dark matter or nature of Higgs boson.
Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
- It is the world’s most powerful and largest particle accelerator.
- The accelerator is in a tunnel on the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland, underground at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
- The collider was started in 2008.
- It consists of a 27-kilometer ring of superconducting magnets along accelerating structures to boost the energy of the particles through their way.
- The two high-energy particle beams travel closer to the speed of light before they meet to Collide.
- The beams travel in opposite directions in separate beam pipes – two tubes kept at ultrahigh vacuum. They are guided by a strong magnetic field maintained through the superconducting electromagnets.
- It made a breakthrough discovery of Higgs Boson in 2012.
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