CERN: They found New “exotic” particles

Scientists of the LHCb experiment at the European Nuclear Research Organization’s Large Collider (LHC) (CERN) announced the discovery of three new “exotic” subatomic particles, a new species of pentaquark and two new tetraquarks.

The findings, presented by researchers today at a seminar at CERN, add to the list of new hadrons discovered at the large collider and are hoped to help physicists better understand how quarks bind together to form other complex particles.

Quarks, the smallest particles ever discovered by humans, come in six “flavors,” namely: up, down, top, bottom, strange, and charming. charm).

They usually combine in groups of two or three to form hadrons, like the protons and neutrons that make up atomic nuclei. More rarely four or five quarks combine to form tetraquark or pentaquark particles. These “exotic” hadrons, which “live” for infinitesimal fractions of a second, have only been observed in recent years by the LHCb and other experiments.

The new discoveries include new types of these exotic hadrons that had not been observed before, bringing the total number to 21. In particular, the first pentaquark containing a “strange” quark was found. Also discovered is a doubly electrically charged quark consisting of a “charm”, a “strange”, an “up” and a “down”.

“Finding new kinds of tetraquark and pentaquark, and measuring their properties, will help theoretical physicists develop a unified model of exotic hadrons, whose exact nature remains largely unknown. It will also help to better understand the conventional hadrons,” said LHCb spokesperson Professor Chris Parkes of the UK’s University of Manchester.

Scientists do not rule out finding other exotic particles in the future, including the first hexaquark.

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