Physicists Seek To Explain Mysterious Collision At Large Hadron Collider

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Physicists around the world were puzzled recently when an unusual bump appeared in the signal of the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator, causing them to wonder if it was a new particle previously unknown, or perhaps even two new particles. The collision cannot be explained by the Standard Model, the theoretical foundation of particle physics.

Adam Martin, assistant professor of physics at the University of Notre Dame, said he and other theoretical physicists had heard about the results before they were released on Dec. 15, and groups began brainstorming, via Skype and other ways, about what the bump could mean if confirmed — a long shot, but an intriguing one. He and some collaborators from Cincinnati and New York submitted a pre-peer-review paper that appeared on arXiv.org on Dec. 23.

This graph illustrates black dots that show events in experiment records compared along a red line that depicts the number expected through Standard Model processes. Two black dots don’t fall in with the red line. Adam Martin says the bump at 750 is “the most exciting.”

“It was so weird that people were forced to chuck their favorite theories and start from scratch,” Martin said. “That’s a fun area of particle physics. We’re looking into the unknown. Is it one new particle? Is it two new particles?”

The paper considers four possible explanations for the data, including the possibility that it could indicate a heavier version of the Higgs boson, also commonly known as “the God particle.” Further research could yield mundane explanations, Martin says, and the excitement could fade as it has many times in his career. Or it could open up new insights and call for new models.

“People are still cautiously optimistic,” he said. “Everybody knows that with more data, it could just go away. If it stays, it’s potentially really, really, really exciting.”

Authors of paper, “On the 750 GeV di-photon excess,” are Martin, Wolfgang Altmannshofer, Jamison Galloway, Stefania Gori, Alexander L. Kagan and Jure Zupan.

One thought on “Physicists Seek To Explain Mysterious Collision At Large Hadron Collider

  • January 11, 2016 at 1:25 pm
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    It looks as if a repeat of ‘game 1 is in progress’:
    CERN 2-teams working to do a ‘magic’ to show us a 2nd ‘god-particle’ which gives mass to the 1st ‘god-particle’ that has appeared and quickly disappeared to receive a Nobel 2-years ago.
    Now, this 2nd ‘god-particle’ must be more valuable—so, let us name it ‘Islam’ god-particle, and hang a Nobel:
    So, peace will be at hand, or should we ask Kissinger (a chosen-one) to bestow the Title?
    You know, the chosen may not do it until CERN finds a 3rd ‘god-particle’ and a 4th ‘god-particle’, and ready to get a Nobel to each one.

    Why? It is a simple reason: all 4-tribes or should we say each ‘Theology’ must get a Nobel—Bible (got 1st), Koran (2nd), Red-book (3rd), and Torah (4th: this must be a huge one)—so, CERN has to keep working for many more years in the future (and milk Billions or Trillions of $$) to show or cook-up 2-more ‘god-particles’ in head-on collisions:
    Of course, the ‘god-particle’ for Torah Theology must be as big as Einstein black-Hole: otherwise, the chosen wouldn’t accept it, and possibly a 4th world-War begins.

    Therefore, please keep on brain-washing ‘innocent-people’ using CERN-magic, during the next 6-years (or more, if CERN decides to extract more flesh or $$ for the magic-show).

    Seriously, no particles exist in Nature and the idea of standard model is a bogus concept of a confused or ignorant man or woman.
    The Space, Neutron, Stars, Planets-Moons etc.., you, I, and tree—all is made of ‘atoms’.
    CERN is for the idiots who believe in ‘no-god’.

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