There isn’t much that surprises physicists at the Tevatron particle accelerator anymore. However, if there is an unexpected bump in data sets, then scientists look a bit closer. A recently found “bump” is significant enough that has led them to believe that they could have found an unknown particle or an unknown force of nature.
 


There isn’t much data available at this point and the scientists at Fermilab even state they have no idea what the reason of the shift in data is and what they may have discovered. There have been apparently 251 cases of an excess number of collisions that produced a certain type of particle pattern involving a W boson and two jets of light particles. It was initially speculated that the particle could be the long-sought-after Higgs boson, a hypothetical elementary particle that has been predicted to exist by the Standard Model of particle physics.

Fermilab scientists said that the standard Higgs interactions would, however, produce different particle patterns. It is also different from what one would expect from supersymmetry, another theory that is often speculated about.  But theorists speculate that it might be a different and unexpected version of the Higgs boson – or something completely different. The particle, if it exists, should have a mass of about 140 to 150 billion electron volts, or about 140 to 150 times the mass of a proton.

There is also the possibility that Fermilab has discovered a new force of nature, which would add to gravity electromagnetism as well as the strong and weak nuclear forces. If it is a new force, it would only apply to extremely short distances within an atomic nucleus. If the scientists are dealing with a force of nature, it would be most significant discovery in physics in about five decades, the scientists said.

So far, there is just a possibility and scientists at Fermilab are very careful when they talk about this possibility.   The statistical significance of this bump is 3.2 sigma. That means, there less than a 1 in 1375 chance that the result is a fluctuation. This is considered the standard in the field for claiming “evidence” for something new. A 5 sigma event is considered a discovery. The scientists believe that it will take at least another 2 to 3 months of testing until they can conclude whether they have made a discovery or not.

If a discovery has been made, it would end a dramatic era of research at Fermilab’s Tevatron, as the LHC at CERN is now considered to be the center of global particle physics due to its much more powerful collider. The future of the Tevatron has been uncertain since the launch of the LHC.

Fermilab was built in 1967 and is operated by the Fermi Research Alliance (FRA). It is part of the Department of Energy (DoE) with a 2001 funding in the amount of $277 million, a good chunk of the department’s total annual budget of about $3.18 billion back then. The DoE spent a total of about $726 million on high-energy physics in 2001.  Fermilab, which employs about 2000 people, was recently hit with substantial budget cuts that forced the lab to cut its staff substantially.

Jbt, nek prvo skoce pa nek kazu "hop". Cela vest je samo "moguce je da su otkrili nesto novo, mozda su otkrili... "

Jos jedan dokaz da zivimo u vreme kada je samo bitno da je nesto spektakularno, pa makar i samo kao mogucnost. Otisli smo u 3 lepe p.m. svi komplet.

Ma nisu oni nista otkrili,ove godine ce im prekinuti finansiranje pa moraju nesto revolucionarno smisliti da im ne bi ukinuli projekat.

Da, za nauku nema kinte ali za velike bratove, farme i ostale gadarije ima.

Aha, znaci pored Tevatrona i CERN-u fale pare?


LHC na tragu novih prirodnih sila


Veliki hadronski sudarač (LHC) već bi za nekoliko mjeseci mogao otkriti novu subatomsku česticu - znak nove prirodne sile - koja će promijeniti standardni model fizike, pokazala su najnovija istraživanja.

Znanstvenici ističu da je studija najtežeg od šest kvarkova, koji su temeljni građevni blokovi prirode, pokazala da se oni, nakon stvaranja u sudarima protona i antiprotona u Fermilabovom akceleratoru Tevatronu u Illinoisu, ponašaju u najmanju ruku neobično. Naime, prema standardnom modelu, oni ne bi trebali toliko često letjeti u smjeru protonske zrake, odnosno toliko rijetko u smjeru antiprotonske koliko je utvrđeno u eksperimentima.

Ovu neobičnu pojavu Tevatronov je tim uočio još 2008. godine, međutim tada se smatralo da bi rezultati mogli biti slučajni. No Dan Amidei sa Sveučilišta Michigan u Ann Arboru ističe da najnovije izvješće, u kojem su korišteni brojni dodatni podaci, potvrđuje nalaze iz 2008. Tevatronov tim je utvrdio da na energijama iznad 450 milijardi elektronvolti čak 45 posto najtežih kvarkova putuje u smjeru protonske zrake, dok bi se prema postojećim teorijama očekivalo da ih taj smjer preferira samo devet posto.

Amidei ističe da je vjerojatnost da je ova preferencija slučajna vrlo malena - tek 0,07 posto. Iako se taj postotak ne može smatrati definitivnim dokazom, jedan drugi Tevatronov eksperiment, tzv. DZero nedavno je otkrio sličnu asimetriju na temelju drugačijih podataka i tehnika.

Ako se spomenuti rezultati potvrde, preferencija smjera bit će pokazatelj postojanja potpuno nove elementarne čestice koju standardni model ne predviđa. Ona bi također mogla biti navještaj nove vrste sile koja djeluje na najteže kvarkove i njihove antičestice i uzrokuje misterioznu asimetriju.

Znanstvenici su oduševljeni idejom da bi LHC već u skoroj budućnosti mogao otkriti novu elementarnu česticu. Ako asimetriju stvarno izaziva čestica koja je previše masivna da bi nastala u Tevatronu, LHC bi je mogao izravno stvoriti već do kraja godine, smatra Markus Schulze sa Sveučilišta Johns Hopkins.

'Otkrivanje takve čestice bilo bi prekrasan i delikatan znak da postoji fizika iznad standardnog modela', rekao je Schulze.

Teorijska fizičarka Moira Gresham sa Sveučilišta Michigan kaže da brojna tumačenja asimetrije zamijećene u Tevatronu najavljuju postojanje više novih čestica koje bi LHC mogao otkriti.

'Fizičari čestica znaju da standardni model nije potpun', kaže Gresham. 'No dugo smo čekali da dobijemo neke konkretnije potvrde.'





Preuzeto sa ...

Konacno jedno sjajno i prosto objasnjenje dokle se stiglo i sta sve lezi jos, iza linije saznanja. Svaka cast Lighsofte za ovo 

Sunce mu svemirsko, a mi smo u skoli ucili samo o protonima, neutronima i elektronima, takodje o fotonima - spominjao se i neutrino i pozitron. O antimateriji nije bilo price...