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www.voicechronicle.com_tech-and-science 2015 0000506.txt

#CERN Scientists Welcome Two New Particles To The Atomic Family CERN Large hadron collider in Europe, the giant atom-smashing machine, has discovered two new subatomic particles. This will help physicists in their understanding of the behavior between elementary particles. The existence of these particles was known theoretically, but now the scientists have existential data. The two new members of the subatomic family, known as Xi b and Xi b*-,are baryons. Baryons are a group that includes protons and neutrons. They are made up of three even tinier building blocks, called quarks. Together in different combinations, quarks construct a different baryon each time. The two new particles that were discovered recently have the same quarks but with different configurations. The new particles are also positively charged (similar to protons) and six times larger than a proton. Patrick Koppenburg from Netherlandsnikhef Institute and who is working with the CERN said, ow we know exactly what the mass is and that is good news. There are maybe three to five such particles discovered each year. Here we have two in one go, which is quite extraordinary. The measurements that pinpointed the baryons were collected based on data at the Large hadron collider during 2011 and 2012. The machine (LHC) is currently shut down but will start next spring, at higher energy and with intense beams than before. The giant LHC smashes proton beams together and the scientists are left with the job of trying to find the presence of the data of the particles, which have already been defined theoretically. It is by no means easy, as the data is massive the answers generally scattered amongst it. But with the case of these two particles it was slightly easier. According to the study co-author Matthew Charles, a particle physicist at The french National Center for Scientific research LPNHE laboratory at the University of Paris VI the data of the new particles was found surprisingly quickly. t reassuring, adds Dr Charles, ot only did we find them quickly but we got to make very precise measurements of their properties, in particular their masses. r

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